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Central Europe
October 26, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
Strike at Polish flag- carrier highlights management issues
Wojciech Kosc in Warsaw
A strike at Polish state-owned airline Lot is inflict- ing financial losses on the flag carrier and has highlighted management issues in the company run by the government that stresses the role of the state in the economy.
The strike, which began on October 18 over
the firing of a union leader, is currently turn- ing against the company’s CEO Rafal Milczarski whose handling of personnel grievances and response to the protest appear questionable.
The inability of the company to reach a compromise with the strikers could also turn into a political problem for the government. The PiS administra- tion has long said Lot is a strategic company and as such should remain under state management.
Lot has cancelled a number of flights since the strike begun, including 17 departures and land- ings to destinations like Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Copenhagen, on October 24 alone. The company had incurred “a few million zloty” in losses be- cause of the strike so far, Milczarski told PAP
on October 23.
The protesters want the union leader Monika Zelazik reinstated at work. Zelazik was fired in June following attempts to start a strike, which were pre-empted by Milczarski via court orders.
Poland’s labour inspection authority PiP said in August that firing Zelazik was illegal. The company has dug in its heels and refused to reinstate her.
The protesters also demand Lot start employing plane crews on regular full-time job contracts
rather than on the basis of self-employment, commonly known as “trash contracts” in Poland.
Companies looking to reduce the costs of social and medical insurance for their workers often use self-employment in Poland. It is illegal in many cases, but the enforcement of the labour code has long been non-existent in Poland, and firms routinely take advantage.
In the case of a state company, however, blatant circumventing of the law is particularly dubious, critics say.
Lot claims the strike is illegal. The company fired 67 strike participants on October 22, a move that, supportive lawyers say, broke the law. Some of the striking pilots were handed notices to pay Lot for the loss they caused by forcing the airline to cancel flights.
“It’s another form of bullying,” Karol Sadowski, the lawyer representing the pilot and cabin crew unions taking part in the strike, told Reuters. Ear- lier during the protest, participants were denied access to toilets or shelter in bad weather.
Lot, which teetered on the verge of bankruptcy for years and had to be bailed out by the government in 2014, has boasted good results of late.
The company made PLN283mn (€65.6mn) in profit from core activity last year. The forecast
for this year is PLN225mn. The number of pas- sengers is expected to reach 10mn this year from 6.8mn in 2017. Rising costs of fuel cloud outlook for the airline, however.