A 29-year-old resident of Rybnik has walked away from Poland’s coal industry with a one-off payout of 170,000 zloty, accepting a clause that blocks him from ever working in a mine again. Mateusz Moskwa, previously employed as a miner-electrician, is one of the workers using the protection schemes run by Polish Mining Group (PGG).
Under the deal he signed, any return to the company’s mining structures is ruled out for the rest of his life. He took the money on those terms. As he described it in a conversation with Onet, the reactions around him differed sharply: some people congratulated him, while others mainly wanted to know how much he had received.
His decision did not stay inside his own household. Two people from his division have reportedly already submitted their departure documents, prompted by his example, and former colleagues began asking him about the procedure.
Moskwa does not plan to use the payout for day-to-day spending. He treats the 170,000 zloty as capital for the future: he intends to buy a plot or a property in the Rybnik area and to spend part of the sum on courses and further education. He already earns money from wedding photography and video editing. Onet reports that four commissions a month can bring him three times more than his previous mining wages.
Who gets the lump sum and who gets the leave
The one-time severance of 170,000 zloty is aimed at employees who fail to meet the conditions for a mining leave or for the leave reserved for staff of mechanical coal processing plants. A mining leave can last up to five years, while the variant for mechanical processing plants runs up to four years. During such a leave the employee receives a benefit equal to 80 percent of their pay, calculated on the same rules that apply to holiday pay, without performing any work.
Five thousand departures at PGG in 2026
Polish Mining Group assumes that around 5,000 people will leave the company in 2026. Despite that planned reduction, it remains one of the largest employers in the country, with roughly 34,000 staff on its books. At Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa the programme is set to cover 4,248 employees. Both sets of solutions are designed to limit the social consequences of the gradual winding down of hard coal extraction in Silesia.
Źródło: WNP.pl, Fot. Shutterstock/Vyacheslav Svetlichnyy
