At midnight between 2 and 3 June 2008, employees of the Polish postal authority, Poczta Polska, commenced an open-ended strike. The workers were seeking to secure pay increases greater than those provided for in the agreement reached in late May 2008. However, employer representatives condemned the strike action as illegal, and the company announced that it would be reporting the incident to the public prosecution authorities.
Background to conflict
The acrimonious dispute between management and employees of the Polish postal authority, Poczta Polska – a state-controlled company with a total workforce of 100,000 employees – dates back to early 2006. The first strike was initiated by postal workers in the Gdańsk region in northern Poland in mid November 2006. This action was suspended after three days, following the signing of a pay agreement with management; however, the latter subsequently reneged on this agreement, arguing that pay increases for postal delivery staff in Poland would amount to an unacceptable financial burden for Poczta Polska. The protest was duly resumed, with several thousand postal workers throughout Poland joining in the protest between mid November and the end of 2006 (PL0612039I). The dispute continued into 2007, although no major strikes were held.
Reasons for recent strike
The direct cause of the strike initiated between 2 and 3 June 2008 was the refusal by the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union ‘Solidarity’ (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy ‘Solidarność’, NSZZ Solidarność) representing postal employees and by the Postal Guard Trade Union (Związek Zawodowy Straży Pocztowej, ZZSP) to endorse the most recent pay agreement. This agreement, drafted as a result of a collective dispute, was signed by Poczta Polska’s management and representatives of 32 smaller trade unions. It provides for a pay increase of PLN 400 (about €118 as at 4 September 2008) from 1 August 2008, in addition to a further provision whereby employees are to receive coupons for goods worth another PLN 400 by the end of the year. However, the postal section of NSZZ Solidarność, along with a number of smaller organisations, were demanding a pay increase of PLN 537.50 (€159) for each full-time position along with equalisation payments effective from 1 August 2008.
It was initially estimated that the protest led by NSZZ Solidarność would involve up to 20,000 employees, resulting in considerable disruption to Poczta Polska’s operations. Nevertheless, by 6 June 2008, the number of participants in the strike had not exceeded 4,000, and no more than 250 out of a total of 8,000 Poczta Polska units were entirely shut down.
Employer organisation condemns strike action
The strike at Poczta Polska was condemned by the Confederation of Polish Employers (Konfederacja Pracodawców Polskich, KPP), of which Poczta Polska is a member. In an official statement, KPP considered the merits of reporting an alleged criminal offence on the part of the Inter-Facility Organisation of NSZZ Solidarność of Postal Employees to the prosecution authorities. KPP maintains that, during the collective dispute when NSZZ Solidarność was negotiating with Poczta Polska management, the leaders of that union had already decided to go on strike as of 27 March 2008. This decision, KPP alleges, was kept secret until 14 April. On this premise, KPP argues that Poczta Polska’s directors embarked in good faith on negotiations, which – given NSZZ Solidarność’s previous decision – were merely pursued for pretence. KPP also maintains that – even before the mediation stage, during the collective dispute – NSZZ Solidarność had held a strike referendum. The employer organisation argues that this is contrary to the law on the resolution of collective disputes, as well as to favourable industrial relations and common logic: at that time, employees casting their ballots had no way of knowing how the talks would develop or to what extent the employer might accommodate their demands.
Moreover, the KPP representatives were in agreement with Poczta Polska’s management that the trade unions’ pay demands ‘breach acceptable limits by far and testify to loss of a self-preservation instinct by the union activists’ and that ‘meeting such demands is not feasible and would lead to loss of Poczta Polska’s financial liquidity’.
Company response
Poczta Polska’s management board condemned the trade union strike as illegal and announced that it would report the incident to the public prosecution authorities. The management also took steps against the trade union leaders involved; this included issuing the telephone number of the Head of the postal section of NSZZ Solidarność, Bogumił Nowicki, to customers inquiring about the strike’s expected duration. In response, Mr Nowicki criticised the move, arguing that ‘instead of talking, the management of Poczta Polska wanted to intimidate us’.
Another unorthodox element of the company’s response was a letter issued to Poczta Polska’s regional directors by a manager at Poczta’s headquarters, Krzysztof Sołśnia, in which he informed the addressees that ‘the Crisis Management Centre is drawing up documents individually addressed to persons declaring their participation in the strike, notifying them of a reduction of their wages and reduction of their quarterly bonus, which will also translate into reduction of the annual bonus’. The director also issued instructions to the effect that strike participants disrupting the work of others should be photographed and that their superiors should call the police.
Commentary
Although the strike action at Poczta Polska was suspended on 11 June 2008, the collective conflict is still ongoing; this does not augur well for the further overhaul of the organisation. Such an overhaul is becoming a matter of urgency given that, in 2009, the postal services market in Poland will be deregulated. Further tension is being generated by the fact that the lower chamber of Poland’s parliament is considering a draft statute envisaging the bankruptcy of Poczta Polska.
Jacek Sroka, Institute of Public Affairs (ISP)