What determines the presence of works councils in Polish companies?
| Date | 06 August 2018 |
| Pages | 787-800 |
| Published date | 06 August 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2017-0159 |
| Author | Katarzyna Skorupińska-Cieślak |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
What determines the presence of
works councils in Polish
companies?
Katarzyna Skorupińska-Cieślak
Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors influencing the presence of works councils in
Polish companies. The study also considers the incidence of councils in organizations and management’s
attitude towards these institutions of employee participation.
Design/methodology/approach –Based on a sample of 402 Polish private companies, the probit model
was calculated to identify the determinants of a works councils’presence. The coverage of active councils was
evaluated on the MRPiPS database and the GUS database.
Findings –The data show that the coverageof works councils in Polish organizations fell suddenly afterthe
introduction of the amendment of the Act from 2009. Moreover, trade union density has a strong positive
influence on theoccurrence of works councils in companies. Councils are alsomore likely to be found in older
foreign-ownedcompanies in which forms of direct participation are used. Additionally, a higher share of shift
workers in companiesis associated with a higher probability of workscouncils’presence.
Research limitations/implications –There are some difficulties with obtaining a precise analysis of the
coverage of works councils in Poland.
Practical implications –Polish findings may be useful for other countries of Central and Eastern Europe
with similar characteristics of industrial relations and similarly short traditions of works councils.
Originality/value –This paper extends the previous research on the operation of works councils in Polish
industrial relations by providing an econometric analysis of the determinants of councils’presence in
companies. Such an analysis has been conducted in Poland for the first time.
Keywords Poland, Industrial relations, Employee rights, Trade unions, Works councils
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Following its accession to the EU, Poland has been obligated to transpose EU directives,
including thoseon employee participation, into the Polish system of labor relations. This also
applies to Directive 2002/14/EC, which has given rise to participatory structures in Central
and Eastern European (CEE) countries following the pattern of German works councils.
Poland implementedthis Directive in the Act on Informingand Consulting Employees (AICE)
of April 7, 2006, thus transforming the system of employee representation from pure union
representation to dual representation (trade unions and works councils). According to the
AICE, works councils have a right to information and consultation, but not co-determination,
unlike most of their Western European counterparts. The amendment of theAICE of May 22,
2009 altered the mode of election of works councils, which formerly varied depending on the
presence of tradeunions in a given company. Pursuant to the amendedlaw, works councils in
all Polish companies are to be appointed in general and equal elections by all workers.
During this decade of works councils in Poland, there has been little research on these
new institutions of employee participation in Polish companies. The few existing surveys
mainly focused on information and consultation processes in works councils (see Okraska,
2007; Partner, 2007; Męcina, 2009) and the relations between them and other social partners
in companies (Wratny and Bednarski, 2010). The sources of the weaknesses in the
Employee Relations
Vol. 40 No. 5, 2018
pp. 787-800
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-07-2017-0159
Received 16 July 2017
Revised 27 October 2017
20 December 2017
Accepted 20 December 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
The paper was supported by the Polish National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki) under
Decision No. DEC-2013/11/B/HS4/00474. The author would like to thank Szymon Wójcik for his useful
comments on the earlier version of this paper.
787
Polish
companies
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