– On December 6, the workplace organization of NSZZ Solidarność at Toyota Boshoku in Wykroty put forward three demands to the employer, setting December 12 as the deadline for their implementation – Bogusław Wojtas, deputy head of the Jeleniogórski Regional Board of NSZZ Solidarność and chairman of the negotiating team, tells istotne.pl Bogusław Wojtas,.
The union members’ demands – the most important of which is a gross PLN 700 pay rise for every employee at the plant, of whom there are around 900 – have not been met. A collective dispute is under way.
As B. Wojtas says, company representatives explained that they did not understand why a collective dispute had arisen since talks on the pay scale were ongoing. “Toyota had previously proposed pay rises of 10–12 percent,” explains the head of the negotiating team. “But this raises a key question: are we talking about an overall increase in the wage bill, or only about salaries? And if so, which ones? In addition to their basic pay, Toyota Boshoku employees have several other supplementary components. If the employer means the overall amount, this will result in an unfair increase in pay.
Toyota wants to sit down for talks only after the holiday and New Year break, on January 5. “Companies in Poland have this way of operating: delaying things, waiting for the other side to tire (that is, the trade union organization), and intimidating the workforce,” comments Bogusław Wojtas.
On Friday, December 15, Solidarność will send Toyota Boshoku a letter calling for negotiations to begin immediately. (After all, this obligation is imposed on the employer by law.) “If they do not want to talk to us, we will take appropriate legal steps,” the union member announces. “Next week we will meet with the workforce and explain the legal aspect of the matter. The workforce at Toyota is intelligent; they know where the truth lies.
We will return to this topic.