WARSAW: The Polish government has adopted a bill to raise the minimum wage for casual and self-employed workers to PLN 12 (EUR 2.73) per hour from 1 January 2017. Employers who are caught paying their workers less than the national minimum could face fines of between PLN 1,000 and PLN 30,000.
According to the Family, Labour and Social Policy Ministry, which was behind the new bill, the new regulations will prevent the abuse of civil law contracts, while protecting employees at the lowest wage levels. The new bill has been hailed by unions and labour experts, although employers have complained.
“If someone cannot afford to hire an employee for PLN 12 per hour gross, it’s probable that his business creates unstable jobs anyway, and will be damaged by any swing in the market [such as] a larger player entering the market, a change in the legal structure, or an increased in VAT by one percent,” labour market expert Łukasz Komuda told the PAP news agency. “I do not think that these type of arguments are founded, in particular because in Poland we have a relatively good situation on the labour market, and in my opinion the unemployment rate will continue to fall,” Komuda added.
