On Thursday, 8 November, Minister Joachim Brudziński and representatives of the social side signed an agreement ending the protest action.

Under the agreement reached, from 1 January 2019 officers of services subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior and Administration will receive a gross pay rise of PLN 655. Another gross pay rise of PLN 500 will take effect from 1 January 2020. The Ministry of the Interior and Administration has agreed to abandon the requirement to have reached the age of 55 when retiring. Officers will also be entitled to fully paid overtime.

As representatives of the trade union side declared, the agreement ends the protest action that had continued in the services since July this year. Head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration Joachim Brudziński stressed that the compromise reached had to reconcile the officers’ demands with the state’s budgetary capacity.

The agreement was signed on behalf of the social side by:

  • Krzysztof Hetman, Independent Self-Governing Trade Union of Firefighting Employees
  • Krzysztof Oleksak, “Florian” Firefighters’ Trade Union
  • Rafał Jankowski, Independent Self-Governing Trade Union of Police Officers
  • Marcin Kolasa, Independent Self-Governing Trade Union of Border Guard Officers
  • Krzysztof Andura, National Firefighting Section of NSZZ “Solidarity”.

What will the pay rises be?

During the negotiations, it was agreed that officers of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration’s services would receive a gross pay rise of PLN 655 each from the beginning of next year, resulting in an increase of 0.43 in the multiplier of the so-called base amount. We recall that initially the Ministry of the Interior and Administration proposed a pay rise of PLN 309 from 1 January 2019 and PLN 253 gross from 1 July 2019.

The agreement also provides that officers will receive another gross pay rise of PLN 500 from 1 January 2020.

Fully paid overtime for all Ministry of the Interior and Administration officers

Another demand by the union representatives concerned the settlement of so-called overtime. Officers’ service time amounts to 40 hours per week within the adopted settlement period. Payment for service time exceeding the standard, so-called overtime, is currently paid only to firefighters, at 60 percent of the rate for one hour of overtime. In the Police, Border Guard and SOP, officers can only take time off in lieu for overtime worked.

Under the agreement, from 1 July 2019, all police officers, firefighters, border guards and SOP officers will receive payment at 100 percent of the hourly rate. Initially, a six-month overtime settlement period will be applied. Determining the settlement period for subsequent years will be the subject of further dialogue.

Abandoning the requirement to have reached the age of 55 when retiring

We recall that on 1 January 2013, the PO-PSL government introduced new regulations concerning the pensions of officers who joined the service after 31 December 2012. These officers were to be entitled to a uniformed-services pension if, on the date of their release from service, they had reached the age of 55 and had at least 25 years of service. Until now, both conditions had to be met simultaneously.

The ministry and the social side agreed to abandon the requirement to have reached the age of 55. This means that only one requirement for retirement will remain: at least 25 years of service. The change will take effect from 1 July 2019.

Additional incentives to remain in service

Both the Ministry of the Interior and Administration and the trade union side want experienced officers to remain in service as long as possible. Therefore, the ministry proposed preparing solutions enabling additional financial payments to be awarded to experienced officers. This would apply to people who have acquired pension rights and have at least 25 years of service.

Other arrangements by the Ministry of the Interior and Administration and the social side

Representatives of the social side will actively participate in developing a new multiannual development programme for the Ministry of the Interior and Administration’s formations for 2021–2024, with particular emphasis on the need to increase pay rises.

Regarding the demand related to Article 15a of the Act on retirement benefits for officers, the parties agreed that they would maintain their divergent positions, but declared their willingness to resolve the issue by the end of 2019. This concerns the rules for retiring officers admitted to service after 1 January 1999 and before 1 October 2003.