Days of Action – September 11-14
In the last two years, the Polish working class has suffered amazing attacks against their rights and working conditions. The retirement age was raised to 67 and most recently, the government did away with the guaranteed 8-hour work day. Unions are responding with protests from September 11-14. We call on people to support by sending messages of solidarity, posting banners or memes on the internet, putting banners or posters in the street, writing articles about the situation and organizing protests at Polish Embassies and Consulates around the world!
The Latest Attacks
The latest attacks on workers' rights include giving employers the right to make their employees work up to 78 hours a week, without overtime pay. This can be done by scheduling all the yearly work in a shorter period and then giving the workers time off during the rest of the year. But the employer is not obliged to pay the normal wages during this time, which means they can essentially pay you significantly less money for the same amount of work.
Such working conditions can now be agreed by an individual worker, despite the unions agreement or lack thereof. It can also be agreed by a workers' representative from a work council. The election of works councils is determined in accordance with regulations set up by the employers and the representative is not accountable to the workers and has no right to start collective disputes.
The latter is clearly a way to undermine the power of unions to negotiate.
