flash news: #trade unions
The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy is working on an amendment to legislation on collective labour law. The draft law on collective labour agreements and collective accords (whose most important assumptions - with regard to collective labour agreements we have already addressed in a previous flash) also contains a proposal for a significant amendment to the Trade Union Act.
Trade unions have until Wednesday 10 July 2024 to submit information to employers on their size. The information is submitted as at 30 June 2024 and should include individuals:
- employed under contracts of employment,
- cooperating under civil law contracts.
A bill to amend the Law on Trade Unions has been submitted to the Sejm (Polish parliament’s lower house) and on 11 June 2024 it was referred for a first reading in committees. The amendment intends to adapt legislation to new technological realities.
According to the draft, a trade union will be able to ask an employer about the “parameters, rules and instructions used by the algorithms or artificial intelligence systems that affect decision-making and that may have an effect on the conditions of work and pay, availability and continuation of employment, as well as on profiling”.
A bill (no 2642) providing for the addition of point 5 to the current Article 28(1) of the Trade Union Act of 23 May 1991 is currently under deliberation in the lower house of parliament (Sejm). According to the new provision, the employer will be obliged, at the request of a company trade union to provide information on: "parameters, rules and instructions on which algorithms or artificial intelligence systems are based, which influence decision-making and which may affect working and pay conditions, access to employment and its maintenance, including profiling".
The proposed amendment is expected to enter into force 14 days after publication.
Legislative stage: the bill was referred to committee for its first reading.
A bill on collective labour disputes dated 11 July 2022 (draft number: UD 408) was published on the Government Legislation Centre’s website on 15 July 2022.