Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

ased on social insurance and their main function is to protect living standards (Hinrichs
2000).
The first pension reform which is relevant in the context of my study is the reform of
1954 whereby the Bismarckian administrative differentiation between blue- and white-collar
workers was replaced with the division between two categories of workers. The preferential
treatment of ´first category workers´ was a socialist element and was to encourage people to
take up work regarded as important for the socialist economy and entailing dangerous or
health-impairing working conditions – miners, workers on ships and aircraft, and teachers;
with ´second category workers´ encompassing all others. Those categories were replaced
with the act of 1982 with workers working ´under special conditions´ (e.g. pilots, dockers,
steel- and ironworkers, miners, sea fishermen; Latoszek 1996) or performing work ´of
special character´ (e.g. artists, musicians, teachers, journalists, soldiers, fire workers,
customs officers; Tymorek 1999). What is important in the context of my study, is the lower
retirement age (usually 55 y. for women, 60 y. for men) granted to those workers as a
political privilege and in order to ensure loyalty (Golinowska/Pietka 2003: 337-8). The
range of persons entitled to branch privileges amounted to 25 per cent of the workforce
(Księżopolski 1997: 342). As will be shown in section 3.3.4., many Poles make use of those
privileges, which contributes to the low average retirement age and to difficulties for
adapting to the new system in terms of postponing retirement. That also has a bearing on the
opportunity structure of Polish firms, as the preference of Poles for early exit enables them
to cut staff levels with little social unrest (chapter 4.3.).
Table 6 presents reforms of the old-age and disability pension system which are of
relevance for my study.
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