26 days of leave at the start and 32 days after 20 years of work. A groundbreaking change for employees

The Trade Union of Employees of the State Labor Inspectorate wants changes in the rules for using vacation leave by employees of the Inspectorate and extending its duration with length of service. A petition in this matter is being processed in the Sejm.

Trade unionists from the labor inspection want to extend holidays for employees of this institution (photo: PAP/Albert Zawada)

The legal opinion of the Office of Expertise and Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Chancellery of the Sejm regarding the petition submitted by the Trade Union of Employees of the State Labor Inspectorate has been published on the Sejm website. It follows from it that the petition falls within the scope of the tasks and competences of the Sejm and meets formal requirements.

- The arguments raised in the justification of the petition, and in particular the argument that the proposed change largely concerns substantive employees performing "tasks of a significant degree of complexity and responsibility as well as exposure to stress/burnout", speak in favor of considering the proposed change - we read in the opinion.

Trade unionists are calling for an increase in the amount of leave for employees of the Inspection. They are asking for two provisions to be added to the Act on the State Labour Inspectorate:

• Art. 51a in the following wording: "An employee employed by the National Labour Inspectorate, whose leave entitlement in accordance with the previous length of service is 20 days, is entitled to additional leave of 6 working days";
• Art. 52b in the following wording: "Employees other than those indicated in Art. 38 sec. 1 item 3, employed at the National Labour Inspectorate for a period of not less than 10 years are entitled to additional annual leave of 3 working days, and after 20 years of work – of 6 working days."

In their opinion, this would create additional incentives - especially for young people - to start working in PIP. They would gain the right to 26 days of vacation leave from the start. The second idea, on the other hand, would aim to encourage employees to join PIP for a longer period.

However, in the opinion of the expert office, it was indicated that it was difficult to assess to what extent "this type of privilege" would convince young people to take up work in that institution.

The opinion also recalled that work is currently underway at the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy to shorten working hours, so when considering starting work on the change proposed in the petition, these should be taken into account, as well as, among other things, the degree of workload on PIP employees.

- It's high time to shorten the time while maintaining the same remuneration. 107 years have passed since the introduction of the 8-hour workday. (...) It's high time to take the next step. Poles are working more and more efficiently, smarter. It's time for them to work less and less - said Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk on the day the pilot was announced.

In the first year, the ministry will allocate PLN 10 million from the Labor Fund for this purpose.

The full text of the opinion is included below the text.