The Minister of Education and Science Przemysław Czarnek has signed a regulation on the minimum basic salary rates for teachers. As we read on the ministry’s website:

Thus, teachers will receive back pay from 1 January this year, thanks to the education subsidy being increased by a record amount of more than PLN 11 billion.

Ministry officials add:

The education subsidy in 2023 will amount to PLN 64.4 billion. That is PLN 11.1 billion more than in the 2022 Budget Act, an increase of 20.8 percent. There has never been such a huge increase in the subsidy in either nominal or percentage terms. Despite the enormous expenditure of the state budget, including on defence and healthcare, next year the government will allocate record funds to education.

The PAP local-government service in turn reports:

Under the regulation, the increase will amount to 7.8 percent compared with the average salaries in force from 1 September 2022. The minimum salary rates for teachers with a master’s degree and teaching qualifications will therefore be as follows: PLN 3,690 for new teachers without a professional promotion grade (an increase of PLN 266), PLN 3,890 for appointed teachers (an increase of PLN 293) and PLN 4,550 for chartered teachers (an increase of PLN 326).

What does ZNP say?

The Polish Teachers’ Union sees the matter quite differently. The organization’s website published a letter addressed to the head of MEiN, P. Czarnek. Here it is:

Dear Minister,

at the initiative of the Polish Teachers’ Union, a meeting of the Public Services Team was held on 15 February 2023. Its main topic was a discussion of the draft regulation amending the regulation on the amount of minimum basic salary rates for teachers, the general conditions for granting allowances to basic salaries, and remuneration for work on a day off.

The Polish Teachers’ Union was convinced that Minister Dariusz Piontkowski, who took part in the meeting, would address the Union’s proposal to increase basic salary rates by 15%, which we submitted on 1 February 2023 (the emphasis comes from the document’s signatories: the head and deputy head of the ZNP – editor’s note).

Unfortunately, instead of addressing the proposal, the minister stated that discussing changes to the draft regulation was pointless because no changes could be made after Parliament had adopted the Budget Act.

An act that does indeed set the average annual increase in wages at 7.8%, but this applies only to the state budgetary sphere. The act merely raises the base amount for teachers to PLN 3,981.50, which gives the social partner – including the Polish Teachers’ Union – the right to submit a proposal to increase basic salary rates during the consultation talks.

On 13 February 2023, ZNP sent Minister Dariusz Piontkowski its negative position on the draft regulation, at the same time demanding a 15% increase in basic salary rates (emphasis – istotne.pl).

In view of the Ministry of Education and Science’s negative position on the Union’s demands to increase teachers’ basic salary rates, and the pretence of consultation with social partners – the Polish Teachers’ Union urgently demands that the pay regulation be signed, allowing teachers’ salaries to be increased with back pay from 1 January 2023.