Search results

The article looks at the evolution and institutional characteristics of Polish trade unions after 1989 in a pre-1989 historical context. It highlights the role of path-dependency in assessing labour's capacity to adapt to the new economic, political and social environment which emerged following the radical institutional change. Based on field work conducted in 2009 and 2010, the paper focuses on the dynamics in organisational structure of the three nation-wide trade union organisations (Solidarity, OPZZ and FZZ), and adds a concise description of national industrial relations, emphasizing their hybrid and foggy nature.

The paper concentrates on the issues of interest representation for non-standard employees. The empirical findings from the European Union (EU) level are used as a frame of reference for analysis of the situation in Poland. Nonstandard employment is an ambiguous notion, so is, naturally, the concept of non-standard workers. In Poland nonstandard employment has been growing, mostly in a form of 'junk jobs'. Trade unions, and other institutional forms of collective interest representation, struggle to endorse problems faced by non-standard employees, with a moderate degree of success.

The paper concentrates on the issues of interest representation for non-standard employees. The empirical findings from the European Union (EU) level are used as a frame of reference for analysis of the situation in Poland. Nonstandard employment is an ambiguous notion, so is, naturally, the concept of non-standard workers. In Poland nonstandard employment has been growing, mostly in a form of 'junk jobs'. Trade unions, and other institutional forms of collective interest representation, struggle to endorse problems faced by non-standard employees, with a moderate degree of success.