High assessment of the Labour Inspectorate’s activity

Chief Inspector’s Report approved by Parliament

At its plenary session on 7 February 2008, Parliament of the Republic of Poland approved the Chief Labour Inspector’s Report on the National Labour Inspectorate’s Activity in 2006. All parliamentary clubs voted for its approval. The document was presented to Parliament by Bożena Borys-Szopa, Chief Labour Inspector, who participated in the session together with her deputies and a group of closest co-workers.

Bożena Borys-Szopa emphasised that labour inspectors’ activities in the reporting year resulted in tangible social benefits in the area of improving work safety and health and legal protection of employment. For example, determination and consistent implementation of inspection-supervisory actions brought about the reduction, by half, of the percentage of employers who did not pay remuneration or were late with it (from 60 percent of those inspected in 2005 to 31% in 2006). Moreover, labour inspectors eliminated immediate hazards to health and life of 60 thousand employees.

In line with the adopted priorities, our labour inspection preferred consultancy, education and training, and focused its activities on prevention. Therefore, penalising was applied as a last resort, yet unavoidable in situations when employers were consciously in breach of legal regulations. Particularly blameworthy practices consisting in glaring and continuous infringement of employee rights were reported to prosecutor’s office and courts.

– The power of our labour inspection expresses itself neither in the number of conducted inspections nor in the amount of imposed fines, and I wish to stress it firmly – said the head of NLI from the parliamentary rostrum. – The effects of our work consist in its quality as well as trust which the society puts in us. The quality of inspectors’ work is determined by enforcing the payment of millions of overdue salaries and wages to wronged employees, reaffirming and defending their right to rest, introducing records of working time, which allows to honestly calculate the periods of work, to observe working time norms and, first of all, to eliminate hazards to workers’ health and life. It is a concrete dimension of labour inspectors’ social mission, which is pursued by them every day, consistently and with utmost responsibility.

Stanisław Szwed, Chairman of Labour Protection Council, informed MPs about the Council’s position which expressed its positive assessment of NLI’s activity in 2006.

On behalf of the joined Committees: for State Supervision and for Social Policy and Family, its reporting member Teresa Piotrowska recommended the Report to Parliament. She stated that special recognition is due to labour inspectors for their consistency and increasing effectiveness in enforcing observance of provisions which guarantee decent working conditions to employees. Persistence and consistent activity of National Labour Inspectorate in this area resulted in measurable effects, among which she mentioned e.g. enforcing the payment of 140 million zlotys of overdue amounts to 220 thousand employees, and granting overdue leaves to 95 thousand employees.

– At the same time, one has to be aware – indicated the reporting MP – of high expectations of National Labour Inspectorate, which should continue its intensive inspection and supervisory actions and simultaneously develop preventive and advisory initiatives, especially in relation to small and medium-sized companies. Meeting increasing tasks and expectations is a great challenge, which the inspection has to face. The joined Committees wish to express their certainty that rising to this challenge is completely possible.

– MP Izabela Katarzyna Mrzygłocka, while presenting the position of Civic Platform Parliamentary Club, pointed out that despite inspections by labour inspectors and legal measures applied by them, provisions on work safety and health are not still observed to a satisfactory degree. She expressed concern about a significant increase in the number of accidents among employees with work experience shorter than one year. She suggested placing more emphasis on teaching OSH rules as early as during school education, and creating the habit of looking for expert assistance from National Labour Inspectorate.

– The Law and Justice Parliamentary Club’s opinion about the report was presented by MP Stanisław Szwed. He accentuated high effectiveness of labour inspectors’ actions in fighting the pathology of non-payment of remuneration for work; the pathology which is exceptionally crushing to workers and their families. He particularly positively assessed the NLI’s inspection and supervisory actions in the retail trade and construction sectors. Mr. Szwed expressed the conviction that planned by NLI further refinement of methods and forms of activity and cooperation with other organisations and institutions, especially with trade unions and employers’ organisations, would lead to greater effectiveness of the inspectorate’s work. Its new powers, introduced by the Act of 13 April 2007, should be helpful in achieving this purpose.

While speaking on behalf of the Left and Democrats Parliamentary Club, MP Janusz Krasoń presented a very positive assessment of the inspectorate’s activity in the reporting year. He noted that National Labour Inspectorate defends the rights of a weaker party to an employment relationship, i.e. employees, which is in line both with the idea of the political party represented by him, and the European Union standards. The achievements of modern civilisation impose a duty for the state to strengthen social protection of employees and the protection of safety and health of their work. In the MP’s opinion, a condition for a radical improvement of law-observance in labour relations in Poland is greater involvement of the Polish government in the area of labour protection.

The Parliamentary Club of Polish People’s Party also positively assessed the Chief Labour Inspector’s report. While speaking on its behalf, MP Józef Zych indicated the need to tighten NLI’s cooperation with prosecutor’s offices. The speaker was concerned about a big disproportion, in his opinion, between the number of notices to the prosecutor’s office and the number of cases which end with an indictment. The MP mentioned also the problem of counteracting accidents in agriculture.

In the second part of the session Bożena Borys-Szopa gave detailed answers to questions of over 20 members of parliament.

During the debate on the NLI’s report for 2006, the parliamentary session was chaired successively by: Jarosław Kalinowski, Krzysztof Putra and Stefan Niesiołowski.