Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa has started paying out the first redundancy packages for workers who agreed to leave the company voluntarily. The maximum one-off benefit is PLN 170,000 net, and 526 people have already received it. By the end of this year, a total of 1,156 JSW employees are expected to use the programme, but in certain cases they may be obliged to return all the money.
The payout is not reserved for miners alone. Administrative staff, HR employees and security workers at JSW are also eligible. According to Rzeczpospolita, the state will also finance the so-called mining leaves for more than 3,000 employees who have between four and five years left until retirement. During the leave, each person will receive 80 percent of their monthly salary, calculated according to the rules applied to holiday leave.
New anti-abuse conditions
For the first time, the government has put safeguards into the legislation to stop the protective system from being exploited. One of the main conditions is a ban on taking up employment again in specific areas tied to mining. Every beneficiary must sign a declaration confirming that they know the payment can be lost if they return to a mining company, a firm carrying out mining works, or start their own business activity in the sector.
The right to the benefit also disappears when someone takes a position connected with mining operations or mechanical coal processing, provides such services as a self-employed contractor, or gains the right to a retirement pension. In the most serious situations, the person has to return the entire amount received.
Severance money is not available to workers who have already used similar protective programmes or support instruments designed for leaving the mining sector, offered continuously since 1994.
Poland’s coal sector transformation
Equivalent solutions apply to employees of Polska Grupa Górnicza, the second major coal company in Poland. The changes are part of the transition programme for the national mining industry, which assumes that the phasing out of hard coal extraction will continue until 2049.
Source: WNP.PL, Photo: Shutterstock/posztos
