16.03.2018

 

More working women equals higher economic growth – by 2025, the state budget could gain even more than PLN 50 billion of GDP and almost PLN 20 billion of public levies, according to the latest Deloitte report “Hidden potential of the Polish labour market. Women professionally inactive”, prepared on behalf of Coca-Cola as part of the Labour Market Forum of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. The report was presented on March 16^th this year at a conference in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland with the participation of representatives of the Parliament, non-governmental organisations and farmer’s wives associations. According to Minister Jadwiga Emilewicz, women are the hidden potential of the Polish economy.

“Entrepreneurship is a woman and is deeply rooted in the Polish genotype. It is worth not being afraid to enter the labour market, regardless of whether we are at the beginning of our professional career or at the height of our development,” says Jadwiga Emilewicz, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology. “Today there is a place on the labour market for each and every single one of us women, because our competences are unique and absolutely difficult to overestimate. It is important to make good use of our time. We hope that the Constitution for Business provides solutions that will allow women to develop even more, and those who are wondering whether it is worth being active professionally will be encouraged to enter the labour market,” adds Emilewicz.

Nearly 4 million Polish women aged 20-64 who are economically inactive constitute the real potential of the Polish economy. As it turns out, family and house duties are the main reason for both cessation of employment and non-employment – they concerns up to 7 out of 10 women. The need to look after one’s child as a barrier to starting work was indicated by 41% of surveyed women. Next came the following: taking care of one’s home – 27%; no job offers in the area – 24%; no contacts – 16%; health – also 16%; as well as education and age – both 11%.

Sustainable development of the Polish economy requires investments in human capital. Currently, among the largest challenges for the labour market, unused human resources, including women, take a significant place. The professionally active Polish women still constitute 62% of the entire feminine population. It means that 4 out of 10 of us do not take up a job and do not even look for one. However, we believe that you can return to work. Coca-Cola as an employer is trying to engage globally in the professional activation of women. Together with the Foundation of Success Written in Lipstick, we launched one of the largest activation programs in Poland – “Sukces to Ja” (“I Am Success”). Over one and a half years, we were able to train 10,000 women. We know how large, still unused potential lies hidden in the female part of society,” says Anna Solarek, director of communication and external contacts at Coca-Cola Poland Services.

The study by Deloitte shows that there is a wide variation in the perception of the role of women and men in professional and family life, depending on the region. There are also different reasons for inactivity declared by women depending on their place of residence and their age. For example, in Silesia, Lower Silesia, and Opole Province, the most important reason for professional deactivation of women is taking care of their children – similar to other parts of the country. However, what distinguishes these regions is the fact that the percentage of women indicating childcare as the most important reason is here the lowest and amounts to 38%. In comparison with the south of Poland, i.e. in Lublin Province, Lesser Poland, and Subcarpathia this percentage amounts to 41%, in the north-west – 45%, and in Kuyavia-Pomerania, Podlasie Province, and Warmia-Masuria – 46%.

The third most common reason for deactivation is the lack of job offers in the area where women are asked, as indicated by 19-31% of women. This is the biggest problem for women living in the south of Poland, in the following provinces: Lublin Province, Lesser Poland, Subcarpathia, and Świętokrzyskie Mountains. For Silesian women, as important as the condition of the local labour market is their own health – 19% complain about it. On the flipside, health problems are least important for residents of northern Poland. Residents of south-eastern provinces more often complain about lack of professional contacts – 20% mention it as a barrier to finding a job. In the same region, the level of education is also a problem – 15%, as well and lack of certificates and licences – 14%.

What could encourage Polish women to take up a job are flexible working hours, indicated by more than half of the respondents. Most women spend as much time as 37 hours on household chores a week, which is why working from home would be an equally helpful solution for them. Working part-time is also becoming attractive due to rising wages – over a quarter of women are looking forward it. Then there are such solutions as increasing the accessibility to nurseries and kindergartens – 20%, help from other family members – 13%, and more free days per week – 12%. Importantly, women who are outside the labour market do not stop believing in themselves. Over half of them think that they would find a job the moment they started looking for it. Women are ready to take up a job, because as many as 72% of them would accept a job that would require learning new skills.

“As the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, we have for a long time emphasised the importance and necessity of activation of women on the labour market. The establishment of the Union’s Labour Market Forum has a specific educational objective, also in the area of promoting female entrepreneurship. This unused potential can become the driving force behind changes in the Polish economy. As an organisation representing entrepreneurs, we see the need for changes to take place on the labour market for women, not only in terms of flexible working hours or part-time work, but also in the ability to perform tasks remotely. It is extremely important from our point of view to support women in setting up their own businesses with active cooperation of local governments,” said Katarzyna Włodarczyk-Niemyjska, Director of the Law and Legislation Department of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.

The professional activity of women is not only an important issue from the perspective of their development, building of their self-esteem, and ensuring continuity of opportunities on the labour market, but also a real positive impulse for the Polish economy. The professional activity of women and their equality on the labour market are key elements of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, implemented by 193 countries that are members of the United Nations, including Poland. The increase in the professional activity index of both women and men (aged 20-64) from today’s 68% up to 71% in 2020 and 73% in 2030 is also one of the goals of the Strategy for Responsible Development adopted in 2017 by the Council of Ministers.

Full and unabridged report “Hidden potential of the Polish labour market. Women inactive professionally”

16.03.2018

 

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers and the Warsaw Enterprise Institute as part of the project under the title “Agenda Poland” present their joint proposal for systemic reforms of the state. This time, they focus on issues related to justice, which have been one of the hottest topics in the Polish public debate for more than a year.

The report “Measurable Justice – proposal of judiciary reform” supplements and explains the proposal for changes in the judiciary included in the draft Constitution of the Republic of Poland by Professor Robert Gwiazdowski. “Our changes are not cosmetics, but they do not focus on the dimension of changes related to personnel, which was the main feature of the recent changes introduced by the Law and Justice government,” says Maciej Letkiewicz, co-author of the report.

The report postulates, among others, liquidation of the Constitutional Tribunal, the State Tribunal, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the National Council of the Judiciary. “The existence of many institutions, including those which have become source of a heated political conflict, is not indispensable in a democratic state of law. All common courts and the Supreme Court in individual cases ought to protect the Constitution, so there is no need for a special constitutional court. Administrative matters can be adjudicated by common courts. The case of the Tribunal of State is similar, and for years this has been a de facto dead institution. An analogous fate should await the National Council of the Judiciary and the exclusive competence to appoint judges should be obtained by the President,” adds Kamil Rybikowski, expert on behalf of WEI.

The authors of the study propose that the only special court to remain should be the Supreme Court, composed of 44 judges elected for life by the President. The first Supreme Court would be elected in a general election. Elected would also be the judges of peace, who would settle in the smallest civil cases and misdemeanour cases. The reason for their appointment would be to offload common courts. Common courts would have to restructured and reorganised, and they would also become two-step bodies. Today’s division into district, regional and appeal courts would be replaced by a division into Courts of first instance and Courts of Second Instance.

The report also provides for many facilitations for participants in court proceedings. A far-reaching simplification of the company registration process by transferring it to the administration and managing it through on-line platforms, enabling a notary to obtain a payment order to ensure a much greater effectiveness of debt enforcement or the introduction of an electronic delivery system, is proposed. The authors emphasise that court procedures must be aimed at increasing the speed and efficiency of court proceedings. “The most common objection to the Polish judiciary is the excessive length of proceedings. We offer a number of solutions that will measurably improve this state of affairs. Even the most desirable personnel changes, without systemic changes, will not improve the quality of the judiciary,” stated Tomasz Wróblewski at the end of the conference.

 

16.03.2018 Agenda Poland: Measurable justice. Judicial reform project

5.03.2018

 

The Supreme Administrative Court confirmed that the principle of universal succession refers to licences to run pharmacies, and pharmacy licences acquired through capital acquisitions are by law transferred to the purchaser. Thus, the Court confirmed the rights of entrepreneurs who over the last several years had been buying pharmacies, also from the State Treasury. The judgment undermines the interpretation pursued by the pharmaceutical inspection and the pharmaceutical corporation, which in recent years have acted against entrepreneurs, trying to change the meaning of the provisions on 1%, after a dozen or so years of their validity, without changing the regulations.


At the hearing on February 27^th, 2018, the Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the cassation appeal of the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate against the verdict of the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw of February 27^th, 2017 in Case VI SA/Wa 559/16. The Inspectorate’s cassation complaint was dismissed and the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court (II GSK 2510/17) is a breakthrough as it ends the interpretive chaos surrounding the principle of universal succession on the grounds of licence to operate a pharmacy.


In 2004, the legislator introduced to Art. 99 par. 3 of the Pharmaceutical Law, the provision according to which the licence to operate a pharmacy “is not issued if the entity applying for a licence carries out in the voivodeship more than 1% of generally accessible pharmacies”. For more than a decade, it was consistently assumed that the one percent rule applies, as is clear from the quoted provision, only in cases in which the entrepreneur requests a new licence to run a pharmacy. It does not mean, however, a general ban on having more than 1% of pharmacies, for example, through capital acquisitions.


For a decade, many state institutions in official documents stated that there was no ban on having more than 1 percent of pharmacies in a voivodeship. These institutions included, among others, the Ministry of Health, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, and the Ministry of Treasury, which basing of these provisions sold the state-owned Cefarm pharmacies and their pharmacy chains for over PLN 0.5 billion to private entrepreneurs.


Moreover, the amending drafts that were proceeded that were to introduce such a ban (the ban eventually did not come into force). In the justification of those amendments, it was clearly indicated that the then (and current) provision applies only to the stage of issuing a licence.


“Suddenly, at the end of 2014, the pharmaceutical inspection, under the pressure of the authorities of the pharmacy self-government, concluded that from the wording “licence is not issued if” results in an absolute ban on anyone having more than 1% in the number of pharmacies in a voivodeship. As a result, an administrative procedure was started to undermine and revoke existing licences, including a procedure for refusing to change licences in the case of capital mergers,” said Tomasz Duraj of the law firm DurajReck.


In the case covered by the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, the entrepreneur, after the acquisition of another company, applied to the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate for a change of the permit to run a pharmacy. The entrepreneur referred to the principle of universal succession, according to which the acquiring company enters into the entire rights and obligations of the acquired company as of the merger date. The Inspectorate refused to change the licence to operate a pharmacy, claiming that the entrepreneur exceeded the permissible threshold of 1% of pharmacies owned in the voivodeship. The CPI stated that in such a situation Art. 99 par. 3 of Pharmaceutical Law. In the Inspectorates opinion, this article constitutes an exception to the principle of universal succession specified in the Code of Commercial Companies, and therefore, the licence did not pass to the entrepreneur.


The case was transferred to the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw. Admittedly, the VAC dismissed the entrepreneur’s complaint, but in its justification questioned the interpretation of the provisions of the Pharmaceutical Law the CPI used in its decision. In the VAC’s opinion, the licence to operate a pharmacy is subject to the principle of universal succession and was passed by law onto the complainant. The Inspectorate disagreed with the interpretation presented by the VAC in Warsaw and filed a cassation complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court.


The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate’s complaint. “By dismissing the cassation appeal, the Court first emphasised that the body’s duty is primarily to follow the wording of the provision, and not to perform the “law-making” function. The SAC pointed out that Art. 99 par. 3 of the Pharmaceutical Law does not regulate legal succession at all and must not be treated as an exception to the principle of universal succession,” said Marcin Jaworski of the law firm Tomasik Jaworski representing the PharmaNET Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs Union. “As the Court pointed out, if there are no provisions providing for the exclusion of the application of the universal succession principle, there is no basis for the authority to interpret that the licence was not transferred. As a result, the principle of universal succession applies in this case and the entrepreneur took over the licence by virtue of law,” he added.


The Supreme Administrative Court pointed out that the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate had committed an unacceptable interpretation extending the competences conferred on it by the legislator. The competences granted by the legislator to the Inspectorate only in the scope of the proceedings regarding the issuance of a licence to operate a pharmacy, the CPI unjustifiably extended to proceedings concerning the change of a licence.


“The Supreme Administrative Court also made it clear by the way what it thought about the CPI’s behaviour in the context of patient protection and public health’” said Mateusz Grzech of the law firm DurajReck, who leads the case of the aggrieved entrepreneur, and added “Of significant importance was the question the SAC asked the representative of the Inspectorate whether if in a voivodeship, there were only one pharmacy, would the CPI close it down, as the entrepreneur would then own 100% thus exceeding the 1% limit?”


Today’s sentence is ground-breaking for several reasons. The previous rulings at the level of Voivodeship Administrative Courts in matters related to changing the licence to run a pharmacy were inconsistent. However, the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court introduces an intelligible interpretation of the Pharmaceutical Law provisions referring to the classic rules for the interpretation of law and the actual wording of the provisions. The attempts by the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate to create artificial rules regarding the succession of licences were cut off.


“We are glad that the Supreme Administrative Court clearly stated that the absurd interpretation of the 1% threshold, pushed through by the pharmacy self-government and applied by the Chief Pharmaceutical Inspectorate, has no legal basis. The decision of the SAC is pleasing, because it is a clear signal that the provisions governing the principles of conducting business must be read literally, according to their content, and not interpreted in an extensive way,” summed up Marcin Nowacki, vice president of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.

28.02.2018

 

POSITION OF THE UNION OF ENTREPRENEURS AND EMPLOYERS ON THE DRAFT OF THE ACT ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF JANUARY 22^ND, 2018, THE SO-CALLED CONSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE

The proposed new act can be considered the beginning of positive and much anticipated changes. Polish higher education is in a serious long-term crisis. There is can be no doubt that we are witnessing a multi-faceted problem that has a significantly negative impact on the condition of the Polish economy. Hard data, such as the places of our universities in the prestigious Shanghai Ranking, only prove how dire the situation is. Among the 500 best universities in the world, there are only two Polish institutions – the University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University. For a large country with ambitions to join the richest group in the world in a short time, this is definitely not enough. The situation seems to be even worse when we look at the places that Polish universities took – Warsaw University ranked in the fourth, whereas the Jagiellonian University in the fifth hundred of higher education institutions. This proves that the world in terms of the quality of higher education has overtaken us by several lengths. It will be a long time, before we can, even in the most optimistic scenario, take up competition in this respect with countries such as the United States, Great Britain or Japan. Moreover, it is worth noting the fact that Czechs, Estonians and Serbs have universities placed on higher positions than any of the universities from Poland. Polish universities in the third or second hundred of the ranking seem to be the minimum plan for the nearest future, and ultimately, we should fight for at least one institution to be among the best one hundred universities in the world.

The consequences of the current crisis in higher education in Poland are quite complex. From the point of view of current economy, it negatively affects the access to qualified staff. Not only do Polish companies have to deal with the natural shortage of employees resulting from demographics (the generation born in the demographic low is entering the labour market, as well as many young Poles migrated to Western Europe in recent years), while those who stay in the country and obtain university education often leave them unprepared for the actual work in their profession. In the course of teaching, they do not obtain the necessary competences or practical experience, they often only have dry knowledge acquired in the course of their studies, which turns out to be insufficient on the market. As a result, employers who hire fresh graduates have to train them on their own, or even educate them, so that they are able to perform their tasks on their own. In a more strategic perspective, however, the poor state of Polish universities means that it will be impossible to carry out the kind of economic transformation in accordance with the key ideas of the Plan for Responsible Development authored by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Its very accurate recommendations related to transforming the economy in the direction of innovation, generating high added value, and developing new solutions will be possible only provided there is an effective tertiary education system characterised by a high level of education.

All attempts to execute a wholistic and comprehensive reform of the higher education system in Poland deserve full support from the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. We believe that one of the most rudimentary conditions for the further dynamic development of the Polish economy is the high level of tertiary education. Therefore, we support the drafted act.

Above all, attention should be paid to the fact that unusually broad public consultations concerning the act took place – the discussions regarding the final shape of the project lasted for two years. It seems that this is a very valuable and necessary practice, so different from the increasingly more often used standards, in which new laws are created very quickly, are processed in a haste, often with by way of parliamentary legislative paths and thus avoiding official consultations. In this context, such in-depth and extensive consultations should definitely be appreciated.

Concerning the substantive proposals included in the project, most of them should also be assessed positively. The proposal to introduce University Councils is quite noteworthy. More than half of its composition is to be represented by the socio-economic environment – this way one of the basic postulates of business communities is addressed: to involve entrepreneurs operating on the local market in the process of education in a much larger degree, including higher education. The University Council would have quite broad competences – it would approve the university’s financial statements, give opinions on the drafted statutes, or would select (or nominate candidates for the office of) rector or chancellor. These bodies would also determine their remuneration, and could also provide them with allowances, thus indirectly obtaining a tool to assess and control their work. The Council is to be mainly a supervisory body, but it has been given several executive competences, for example, adopting university strategies, thus arming it with having a real impact on the development of a teaching facility. The provision that more than half of members of the Council must come from outside the university community guarantees the social side, including representatives of business communities, participation in it. This way, local communities have a real influence on the development of higher education institutions.

In order to tighten cooperation with the business community, other proposals were included in the project, among others the postulate that a researcher with a Ph.D. title and extensive professional experience might be employed as professor. To a large extent this may affect the number of didacticians with practical experience, and the same effect might be achieved by the abolition of staff minima. Moreover, in the drafted act, universities are explicitly granted the right to conduct dual studies with the participation of partnered companies, with the detailed organisation of such studies being defined in a written agreement. Providing such flexibility may be beneficial to the development of the dual study formula, very attractive from the point of view of the labour market needs.

The draft also proposes the introduction of entrance examinations at universities (however, the results of exams confirming completion of secondary education would have an at least 50% weigh), or the introduction of a program dubbed “Didactic Initiative of Excellence” involving the financial support of those vocational higher learning institution that achieve the best monitoring results concerning the professional careers of their graduates. Moreover, it is postulated to prolong apprenticeships for undergraduates to up to six months, which obviously translates into greater practical competences of graduates of these studies.

The presented draft is heading in a definitely good direction and takes into account a large part of the postulates raised in recent years, including those raised by the business community. The introduction of cooperation mechanisms between the world business and universities, the introduction of practitioners to universities, as well as greater emphasis on the practical aspects of education deserve our support. Of course, the presented draft law should not be the last step in improving the quality of Polish higher education institutions – the legislator ought to also consider the possibility of modifying the path of obtaining licences and the rights to practice in such a way that it can take place within the framework of university education, and not outside it. We hope that more projects will be prepared, which might have a chance of a deeper impact on the level of higher education in Poland.

 

The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers

 

Photography: Luke Jones/ licence: Creative Commons / flickr.com

27.02.2017

 

According to the position published on February 27^th, 2018, by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, the introduction of mandatory electronic sick leaves is a step in the progressive direction of digitalisation of the healthcare which must be assessed positively.

From July 1^st, 2018, the only effective form of issuing a sick leave will be an electronic document. Until now, doctors have had a choice between writing a traditional sick leave on paper or writing an electronic sick leave entry in the IT system.

“The data we have at our disposal indicates that doctors rarely make use of the electronic option,” said Marcin Nowacki, vice-president of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. “In 2016, almost 500,000 electronic sick leaves were issued. It may seem to be a large number, but at the same time, there were almost 20 million sick leaves written on paper. This data shows well how unpopular e-sick leaves are at the moment.”

The system currently in force, in which the paper form is still dominant, has many disadvantages. First of all, the circulation of physical paper documents consumes more time and work than the exchange of information by electronic means. In case of the second option, the information regarding the sick leave appears immediately in the employer’s IT system. In addition to inconvenient formal and bureaucratic obligations, the current legal situation also causes far-reaching financial consequences that constitute a burden primarily for employers. Entrepreneurs pay as much as PLN 860 thousand annually in payments related to sick leaves covering a period of up to 7 days. It is in their case that the scale of fraud is highest.

“The sick leave issued by a doctor in paper form must be provided to the employer within 7 days of its issue,” Nowacki added. “Therefore, sick leaves covering a period of less than 7 days are de facto beyond anyone’s control. We deal with cases of fraud in this area and as a consequence thereof, entrepreneurs lose real money.”

In addition to financial issues, the position draws attention to the fact that entrepreneurs, when they receive information about their employee’s sickness immediately after it’s been issued, will be able to find replacement for an employee absent due to illness much quicker. The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers emphasises that it supports all solutions for digitalisation of healthcare, including the introduction of mandatory electronic sick leaves. It is worth noting that e-sick leaves are only an element of a broader package of reforms, which also include the introduction of e-prescriptions. The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers hopes that the informatisation and digitisation of Polish healthcare will go further, because ultimately everyone gains from the implementation of innovative solutions – from doctors, who will spend increasingly less time carrying out administrative duties, through entrepreneurs, to the most important participants of the whole system, that is, the patients themselves.

 

27.02.2018 Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers  position on electronic sick leave