Collective Agreements in Poland in the Light of International Labour Standards

Abstract

The paper presents the concept of the collective agreement, trade union representativeness, and the subjective scope of collective agreements in Polish law in the light of international labour law. In the author’s opinion, a better adaptation of the Polish legislation relating to agreements between the social partners on working conditions to international standards by classifying as collective agreements all agreements concluded by representative trade union organisations would remove disputes and uncertainty about their legal effects and would contribute to increasing the scope of collective bargaining. A modification of the provisions on work and pay company regulations would also serve this purpose. In addition, the author suggests changes in the provisions extending the personal scope of collective agreements to workers performing work outside the employment relationship by separating the group of solo self-employed workers belonging to the “grey area”between employees and self-employed workers and extending to them the full effects of concluding an agreement.