Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Problematic is the orientation of collective rulings on the shortening of working life
instead of shorter and more flexible working hours, which would enable older workers to
adapt working hours according to changing capacity during lifetime. An example of that
orientation is the wide-spread utilisation of the blocked model of the early retirement
scheme (Bispinck 2005: XVII). Large deficits have to be acknowledged with regard to the
number of agreements and the range of covered issues on occupational safety and health and
further vocational training. Moreover, at establishment level, many firms do not even fulfil
basic legal requirements as integration management or occupational risks assessments
(Kerschbaumer/Räder 2008: 39), which points to the low power of works councils to
enforce such measures.
3.3. Poland – Institutional Profile
I will deal in the next sub-sections (3.3.1. and 3.3.2.) with changes in the old-age
pension and disability pension system in Poland on the one side, and with changes in the
system of passive and active labour market policies and with legal rules which have an
impact on the employment relationship on the other side. Only such developments will be
discussed which have a bearing on the pull factors of early exit in Poland; consequently, the
social security system for farmers (KRUS) will not be dealt with. In the chapter after that
(section 3.3.3.), I will depict structural changes in the economy which still have an impact
on the current personnel policy of Polish companies – namely, the restructuring of whole
branches, privatisation and acquisition by foreign corporations, and rising unemployment
figures related to those developments. Sub-section 3.3.4. will present the outcome of those
institutional and structural changes – the aggregate figures on labour market participation
and take-up of pensions. Also individual retirement preferences of Poles will be dealt with
in that sub-section. The last section (3.3.5.) will present the policy of social partners with
regard to the way it determines firm-level policy towards older workers.
3.3.1. Overview of Changes in Polish Pension Laws 24
Poland can be, alike Germany, grouped among countries with a Bismarckian pension
scheme (Hinrichs/Aleksandrowicz 2005: 15-16). Pension systems in those countries are
24 This section draws on Aleksandrowicz (2007). The historic information (up to 1991) is based on Pławucka
(1991) and Żukowski (1994), unless otherwise indicated.
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