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

CATHERINE SPIESER
Legislative changes induced by EU accession:
limits on flexibility? (2003-2004)
Although this was at the margin of legislative
alignment with the EU acquis, labour market
regulation was affected by the preparation for
EU membership 31 . The requirement to integrate
the EU acquis into national law applied in two
areas that relate to employment regulation: a
large body of detailed and binding rules needed
to implement the free movement of persons
and, more of interest, selected provisions
concerning employment and social policy
(negotiation chapter 13), which contained little
binding regulations at the time, but a number
of directives requiring transposition into Polish
law.
Therefore, the terms of the debate on lawmaking
slightly changed, taking a more
technical character with the urgent necessity to
bring Polish legislation in line with European
norms as accession became a tangible and
proximate deadline set on the 1 st of May 2004.
The accession negotiations were closed at the
Copenhagen Council on 13 th December 2002.
In 2003, legislative work focused on completing
the integration of the acquis in the area of free
movement and social policy and employment,
leading to the adoption of three texts: the
Act of 13 March 2003 on special rules for
terminating labour relations for reasons not
tied to the employees, 32 the Act of 9 July 2003
on the hiring of temporary workers 33 and the
Act of 14 November 2003 on amendments to
the Labour Code and related laws, 34 aiming to
refine certain aspects of labour legislation and
finalise the adaptation of individual labour law
to EU requirements.
The impact of this legislation in terms of
flexibility and security is a mixed picture. On the
one hand, it is a step backwards in comparison
with previously adopted measures aiming
at greater flexibility. The ban on more than
two consecutive fixed-term contracts was reintroduced,
albeit with a list of exclusions. The
Act of 13 March 2003 on collective dismissals
considerably expanded the requirement for
information and consultation of employees
in the case of mass layoffs: the right could be
exercised even in the absence of a union within
the enterprise concerned; a 30-day notice
should be respected; all employees dismissed
for reasons beyond their control were eligible
for severance payment without exceptions; and
the labour office should also be notified. On
the other hand, the rules concerning working
time were in some respect changed again,
introducing a more flexible calculation and an
increase in the daily working hours, along with
new rules facilitating work during the weekend
(Saturday and Sunday). The latter, however,
was better specified, allowing for separate
contracts to be created for weekend work.
More decisively, the Act on temporary work
formally institutionalised this type of flexible
work, thereby, giving temporary workers a real
status by providing them with protection under
the labour law. It also defined their rights and
obligations, introduced a desperately needed
regulation for temporary work agencies and
regulated the relationship between
the last employer, the temporary
worker and the agency.
page 145
Altogether, elements from thirty
different directives were integrated into
the Polish Labour Code in preparation for
membership of the European Union 35 . In the