Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

not promote a prolongation of working life, with the exception of high-qualified persons
earning higher wages who might postpone the receipt of the old-age pension (Solska 2002:
19; Urbaniak 1998: 201).
Contradictory movements and announcements of the state actors in the field of pension
policy generate a feeling of insecurity among stakeholders and may move them towards
embracing the opportunity of early retirement for fear that it might be soon curtailed. An
example are the changes in the ´assessment base´ which reflects the average wage in the
economy. If it is about to drop, more people decide to retire while the more favourable
assessment base is still in place (Solska 2004: 38).
An opportunity for the prolongation of working life emerges from the paradigmatic
restructuring of the pension system in 1999. The new system, which strongly relates the
benefit level to paid contributions, will in the long run raise the retirement age and
employment rates of older workers (Czepulis-Rutkowska 2003: 287) and will render the
old-age pension system financially sustainable.
3.3.2. Changes in Labour Market Laws
The next paragraph will deal with passive labour market policies and their utilisation for
easing the strain on the labour market, and then turn to active labour market policies as an
attempt to reverse the trend towards early retirement. Finally, I will deal with labour market
laws with regard to protection against dismissals which are frequently brought forward by
neo-classical labour market theory as barriers for the re-employment of older applicants.
Unemployment was a new phenomenon in Poland after transition which had been
previously hidden by the frequent practices of labour hoarding. Unemployment benefits
were introduced with the Employment Act of December 1989 and amounted to 70 per cent
of previous wages during the first three months, 50 per cent for the next six months and 40
per cent afterwards. In the beginning, the very liberal rules (easy access, no control of job
search activities, and unlimited period of receipt) attracted many people who had not
worked before. From 1996, the unemployment benefit is granted only to persons with no
other source of income and is differentiated by tenure. The newly introduced unemployment
benefits and, later on, special benefits for older unemployed did never constitute the main
early exit pathway as disability pensions and early retirement pensions were much more
common (Golinowska/Pietka 2003: 330).
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