Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

CATHERINE SPIESER
and increased the overtime limit from 150 to
200 hours per year’ (ibid.: 236). In comparison
with the former, the proposal of the left would
have raised the cost of labour significantly, but
it was less of a threat to employers since it did
not provide for free Saturdays and raised the
overtime limit. Both proposals, however, were
leading to more uniform working conditions
across industries (in many state sectors, such as
steel, energy and mining, the shorter 40-hour
week already existed).
Taking its time, the government published a
unique draft in September 1999 attempting
to bring together the three previous proposals,
a ‘compromise between the pro-union bills of
AWS and SLD and the pro-business bill of the
SME committee’ (ibid.: 240). Workers had free
Saturdays, a gradual implementation of the 40-
hour work week, plus two extra days off on the
annual minimum leave. Employers obtained
an extension of maximum overtime allowed, a
cut by half of overtime pay, and the abolition
of restrictions on sequential temporary
contracts. The unions were strongly opposed to
most measures, arguing that not all measures
involved had been discussed in the Tripartite
Commission; and the proposal was buried in
October 1999 as the unions announced that
the MPs connected with them would vote
against the bill (ibid.: 241).
After this failure, the government decided to
limit itself to implementing what the unions
called for: the 40 hour and five-day week, with
a two-year phase-in for the former. This was
passed without the support of the Freedom
Union, while two renewed attempts to pass
bills that would liberalise the labour code were
defeated: a resurrection of the failed SME bill
by the Freedom Union, and a bill introducing
a specific, more liberal labour code for SMEs
aside the regular one (ibid.: 243). Finally, a bill
banning work on Sunday in firms employing
more than 5 people, proposed by a faction
of AWS, was passed with the support of the
Peasant party, small parties and independents.
In the face of many opposing voices, the
law, probably aimed at the foreign-owned
hypermarket chains, was eventually vetoed by
the president.
In conclusion, the period of the third Sejm
was marked by repeated attempts to liberalise
or bypass the labour code, but the continued
pressure of trade unions (in particular
Solidarity, given its strong link to the AWS
coalition) and business lobbying inefficiency,
led to a consolidation of the standard
employment contract. Conditions even
improved with a shortened work week, while
new legal or administrative burdens fell on
employers, such as the requirement to establish
internal company bylaws and social funds
(Gardawski 2002a). SMEs remained subject
to the same requirements as large companies.
Nevertheless, the debate had clearly moved:
the “left” had made some significant steps
towards a more business-friendly position, at
times departing even from the pro-workers
movements of some parts of AWS. Thus, two
increasingly separate types of cleavage were
emerging on the issue of labour law
reform: the usual left-right divide and
a workers-business opposition, while page 141
the Left and workers’ side, on the one
hand, and the Right and employers’
side, on the other hand, were not necessarily
overlapping.