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NLI staff achievements were highly assessed Parliament approved NLI’s reports on its activity Elimination of immediate hazards to life and health of over 100 thousand employees, elimination of irregularities in the area of legality of employment with regard to 160 thousand persons or enforcement of payment of over 180 million PLN due to 300 thousand employees – these are only some effects of activity of labour inspectors in the years 2007 and 2008. On 25 September 2009 Tadeusz Jan Zając, Chief Labour Inspector spoke about them in Parliament while presenting reports on the National Labour Inspectorate’s activity in the last two years. – The period covered with the reports brought about essential changes in the functioning of the National Labour Inspectorate – said the head of the inspectorate. – On 13 April 2007 the Polish Parliament enacted a new Act on the National Labour Inspectorate, which came into force on 1 July 2007. It replaced the previous act, which was in force for over 25 years. The labour inspectorate has gained additional competence, also to inspect legality of employment and other paid work. Penalties for infringements of employee rights have been increased. In the years covered with the reports labour inspectors conducted over 160 thousand inspections. They issued 730 thousand decisions, which shows unsatisfactory level of work safety in our country. The scale of hazards to which employees were exposed is proved by the fact that 23 thousand of the above-mentioned decisions ordered to stop work without delay due to immediate hazards to health and life of persons performing work. More than 25 thousand persons were engaged – contrary to existing provisions – in forbidden, harmful or hazardous work. District Labour Inspectors issued almost 500 orders to stop activity of enterprises, their parts or particular types of activity due to permanent hazards creating a risk of a catastrophe. In the area of legal protection of labour, employers were most frequently in breach of provisions on remuneration and other benefits for work – such irregularities concerned one fourth of inspected employers. Like in previous years, labour inspectors disclosed significant breaches of provisions on annual leaves. As much as 76% of inspected employers did not give annual leave in the calendar year in which employees acquire the right to it. Inspections of legality of employment disclosed numerous breaches of law. Irregularities in this respect were identified in more than half of the inspected entities. Tadeusz Jan Zając also emphasised the National Labour Inspectorate’s activity at the international forum. He reminded the audience that the Polish NLI has been the first inspectorate representing new Member States of the European Union, which the Senior Labour Inspectors’ Committee (SLIC) entrusted with planning and supervising implementation of an all-European informational and preventative campaign to eliminate and limit hazards related to manual handling of loads. The National Labour Inspectorate cooperated with the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in Bilbao, by joining implementation of its informational and preventative initiatives; it strengthened its presence in the work of European Parliament’s committees, committees and working groups of the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. As a result of such actions, today the National Labour Inspectorate is appreciated by foreign partners and perceived as a modern European authority for inspection and supervision of working conditions. – I believe that effects of the two-year activity of the National Labour Inspectorate speak well of labour inspectors. First of all, however, they show the constant need to broaden and intensify actions to eliminate irregularities which still occur in the sphere of labour protection – said the Chief Labour Inspector towards the end of his speech. – In our opinion, a culture of innovation should be disseminated, which means a process of continuous improvement, looking for new areas of activity and implementing increasingly better and more effective solutions, in particular in the area of prevention. There is also a need to make legislative amendments, which would be coherent with the labour inspectorate’s mission, reality of the changing labour market and public expectations. Positive assessments of the National Labour Inspectorate’s activity, included in the Labour Protection Council’s opinions on the NLI’s reports, were presented in Parliament by MP Izabela Katarzyna Mrzygłocka, the Council’s chairperson. Both documents were recommended to the Parliament by Arkadiusz Czartoryski and Janusz Krasoń – the reporting MPs for the joint Committees: for State Supervision and Social Policy and Family. All Parliamentary clubs also recommended approval of the reports. Their representatives expressed appreciation for the NLI’s activity in the reporting periods and they thanked the inspectorate employees for their work. The Parliament of the Republic of Poland approved the Chief Labour Inspector’s Reports on the National Labour Inspectorate’s activity in 2007 and 2008. The session was attended by Deputy Chief Labour Inspectors: dr Marian Liwo, Iwona Hickiewicz and Anna Tomczyk.
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