The Council is a central tripartite dialog institution. It serves as a forum for the cooperation of employees, employers and the government and was established by the act on the Social Dialog Council and other social dialog institutions on July 24th 2015. The Council is a successor of the Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Affairs, an institution established in 1994.
The works on the new act were initiated by social partners. An agreement on the draft of the Social Dialog Council Act between the three interested parties was signed on March 21st 2015.
The objectives of the Council
- ensuring conditions conducive to social and economic growth, improving the competitiveness of Polish economy and fostering social cohesion;
- realizing the principles of participation and social solidarity in labour relations;
- working towards improving the formulation and implementation of socioeconomic policies and strategies, as well as building social agreement around them by conducting transparent and substantive dialog between employees, employers and the government;
- facilitating social dialog on all levels of local government.
Members
The members of the Social Dialog Council are the delegates of the government, representative trade unions and representative employers’ organizations.
Representative employers’ organizations:
- Employers of Poland,
- “Lewiatan”,
- Polish Craft Association,
- Business Centre Club.
Representative trade unions:
- NSZZ “Solidarność”,
- All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ),
- Trade Union Forum (FZZ).
Competences
The Social Dialog Council has the right to:
- prepare drafts of legal acts, which the Council of Ministers is obliged to deal with them (the so-called quasi-right of initiative);
- submit motions to the appropriate minister to issue or change a legal act;
- inquire to the Council of Ministers for a public hearing of a draft of a normative act;
- submit inquiries to relevant ministers – to be answered within 30 days;
- submit motions to the Supreme Court asking for a legal ambiguity to be resolved, if there are any inconsistencies in the interpretations of the Supreme Court and common courts.
The duties of the Council are:
- to comment on drafts of legal acts;
- to comment on the initial prognosis for macroeconomic values which are used as the basis of the draft of the budget and present propositions regarding the increase in wages in national economy – including the budgetary sector, as well as the increase of minimum wage and the pensions from the Social Insurance Fund;
- comment on the draft of the budget guidelines;
- comment on issues put forward by the Council of Ministers, its members and other state institutions;
- deal with motions submitted to Voivodeship Social Councils but pertaining to issues relevant to the competences and duties of the Social Dialog Council.
Representatives of Employers of Poland in the Social Dialog Council are:
- Andrzej Malinowski
- Iwona Sroka
- Arkadiusz Pączka
- Jan Buczek
- Joanna Makowiecka-Gaca