Zakłady Ceramiczne Bolesławiec. Fourth: Honor your president and board member

We speak with several ZC Bolesławiec employees in the corridor of the court in Bolesławiec after a settlement hearing. The defendant was Zakłady Ceramiczne Bolesławiec, and the claimant was an employee named Agnieszka. The hearing concerned termination of an employment contract without notice and without fault on the employee’s part, and ended with a settlement favorable to the claimant.

– Ms. Agnieszka was the first protected person to be dismissed – says Agata Rusiecka, chairwoman of the Trade Union of ZC Bolesławiec Employees. – Then Ms. Bożena was next. The trade union did not consent to it. The management’s view is that trade unions are leading Zakłady to bankruptcy. Once such a thesis is put forward, it is difficult to have any partnership in discussion or action. The policy of Zakłady’s management is to get rid of employees with several decades of service very easily. The management has, in a sense, made it a point of honor to destroy the trade unions – the union chairwoman adds.

The management of ZC Bolesławiec takes care of its good name

We learn from people that there is a serious conflict in relations between the Trade Unions of Employees of Bolesławiec’s oldest ceramic company and the management represented by president Arkadiusz Grzesikowski (Civic Coalition) and board member Wojciech Huczyński (also Civic Coalition).

Employees claim that anyone who dares to criticize the way Messrs. Grzesikowski and Huczyński manage the company may expect to be dismissed or even sued. The president has already sued an employee over a critical post online, demanding tens of thousands of zlotys in compensation.

In addition, posts in which someone criticized the management are reported for moderation on our online forum under information about ZC Bolesławiec. This is what a typical report looks like:

The post disseminates false information about the Management Board of Zakłady Ceramiczne Bolesławiec. Thus, it harms the Company’s good name and its reputation on the market. The post may constitute grounds for reporting the matter to the prosecutor’s office against its author. ZCB Management Board.

We have worked here so many years that we have already outlasted five presidents

The female employees, with 30 years of service, still wish well to the company to which they devoted not only their professional lives. A company whose management changes whenever another party comes to power.

Until the 2023 parliamentary elections, the company was managed by politicians from the Law and Justice party; before them, politicians from Civic Platform were in charge, and since 2023, along with the change of government, people from the Civic Coalition (formerly Civic Platform) have once again taken over.

Arkadiusz Grzesikowski unsuccessfully ran for the District Council from the Civic Coalition list in the 2024 local elections, receiving 63 votes, while Wojciech Huczyński ran for the City Council from the same party, also without success, receiving 24 votes.

– We have worked here so many years that we have already outlasted five presidents – says Rusiecka. – We care about the company. We are the ones who make sacrifices for the company, not the employer. During difficult times for the company under president Karol Stasik (Civic Coalition – editor’s note), some employees even worked while on unpaid leave because they were saving the company. That is how it was. During COVID, the trade unions signed an agreement with the company’s previous management because the situation was catastrophic and something had to be done at that moment. And we made very major concessions. For one month we were on standby for the minimum wage, and for two months we received less than the minimum wage. We saved this plant so that things would be good here now. The management works under management contracts, and the owner is a State Treasury company. This clearly calls for an owner’s audit – the union leader appeals.

You criticize—you’re out

Employees criticizing the management describe what they have to face at work: disciplinary dismissals, bans on entering the plant premises, and attempts to find grounds for dismissal based on words.

– Many employees are in a kind of suspended process – Rusiecka explains. – The employer has already decided to dismiss them on various charges, for example, allegedly because an employee said something about the management, and it is based only on words. Such employees also cannot cope psychologically. People are afraid of losing their jobs because any criticism may lead to it. They see that someone commented on the management’s work and is already gone – the chairwoman adds.

A retired employee with 30 years of service joins the discussion. – This must be said bluntly: it is acting according to the principle, “Give me the man and I’ll find the paragraph” – the retiree adds. – A month after retiring, I came to Zakłady regarding the payment of a small outstanding amount. After speaking with the management, I was banned from entering the plant premises. And it continues to this day – the woman adds.

This is not all that people employed at ZC Bolesławiec say. They claim that employees are transferred to other, less favorable positions without substantive justification.

– Even when the management cannot punish someone directly, it does something like assigning the employee to another position – Rusiecka explains. – When the employee asks why, they do not receive a clear answer. The regulations say that an employer may transfer an employee to another position if there are justified needs, for example, if someone in that position has fallen ill and needs to be replaced. Or if orders have suddenly increased and people need to be assigned to fulfill them. In the painting department, where overtime is worked every week and where people are needed, the management takes an employee away and assigns them to another department where there is no overtime because it wants to punish them. That is why they want to destroy the unions, so that absolutely no one will demand accountability for this anymore – the chairwoman adds.

Dismissed for coming to work

After 27 years of work, another employee was dismissed in September 2025. – I was called to the HR department and handed my dismissal – Bożena recounts. – Disciplinary dismissal. For something I did not do. I was dismissed for allegedly working while on sick leave, but I did not work while on medical leave. On top of that, they got the dates wrong, because they dismissed me for having visited a doctor on August 14, while my medical leave began on August 18, and I worked on August 15 and 16 as a hostess at the Ceramics Festival. And for that I was disciplinarily dismissed. They did not dismiss me until September 30. They thought about it for that long – the embittered woman adds.

Employees seek justice in the labor court

– There was a case involving the technical manager – says Agata Rusiecka. – He was given a reprimand. He won in court in both the first and second instances. The case of Ms. Agnieszka, which ended in a settlement, is the second case. However, many employees do not decide to take legal action for fear of legal costs that may exceed any potential compensation, as well as because of the mental exhaustion caused by the situation at work.

The president and board member do not want to speak to the press

We visited the company on January 22, wanting to speak with president Grzesikowski about the employees’ allegations and the court cases. A security guard did not let the journalist into the secretariat. A young woman came down to her and recorded her contact details and questions for the president. When asked when the president would have time for a conversation, she said that the president was currently in a meeting and would not have time.

More than 10 days have passed without contact from the management of ZC Bolesławiec.