Important Ruling of Constitutional Tribunal for Trade Union Activists

In September 2009, eight workers who had joined the newly established branch of the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity at Officina Labor were dismissed just four days after the existence of the union was announced. (Officina Labour was a warehouse for Torfarm pharmacueticals which today is called Neuca; Officina Labor has been renamed Neuca Logistyka.)

Based in Rzgów (Łódź) the company employed almost 400 people. Workers had no extra pay for weekend work, their bonuses were cut and in August 2009 there was an industrial accident which injured 4 people. Furthermore, all had been feeling increasing insecurity about their jobs.

In December 2009, a labour court in Pabianice, following a disturbing trend in Poland, decided that Officina Labor did not have to reinstate the fired union members - not even the elected named representative who is, under Polish law, protected from dismissal.

However, the court did not rule this in the case of one of the unionists since he, unlike most union members, had only a fixed-term work contract. The Labour Code does not guarantee the same rights to people on fixed-term contracts, including to unionists. The worker argued that this was unfair discrimination. The Labour Court was thus not sure what to do with his case and it went to the Constitutional Tribunal.

On July 12 the Constitutional Tribunal decided that this situation was unconstitutional. It argued that every trade union activist which is fired in contradiction with the law on trade unions has the right to fight for compensation and reinstatement.

Now the case will go back to the court in Pabianice. The court, however, may not order reinstatement. Although there are no definitive statistics, it looks as if reinstatement is being ordered in not more than 20% of all cases, which represents a huge change from the situation some years ago and constitutes a serious attack on workers' rights.