2019-04-09 19:39 update: 2019-04-12, 14:46
Photo PAP/Jakub Kamiński
Deputy PM Beata Szydło announced on Tuesday afternoon that teacher unions had rejected the government's proposals in an ongoing dispute over teachers' wages. She stressed that the government side was still ready for talks.
Government officials and teachers' unions met at the 'Dialogue' centre in Warsaw at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss ways of ending a Monday-launched nationwide strike in Polish schools. On Sunday, the government signed an agreement in the matter with the teachers' branch of the Solidarity Union. The Polish Teachers' Union (ZNP) and the Trade Union Forum declined to sign the agreement.
Solidarity teacher branches in Wrocław, Poznań, Katowice and Gdańsk (respectively south-western, western, southern and northern Poland) have criticised the agreement, arguing that it undermined the union's credibility.
The government is trying to defuse the conflict in view of this year's school exams, scheduled to begin on Wednesday. With teachers on strike it is not clear if lower secondary school final exams will actually take place on April 10-12 as planned. The primary school final exams are scheduled to be held a week later.
Szydło said after the Tuesday talks that the government was prepared to seal similar agreements with the ZNP and the Trade Union Forum as it did with Solidarity. She added that the most important thing in the situation were the exams.
"We are ready for more talks, we're ready to continue seeking a compromise. But as I said, most important are the exams," Szydło declared.
Recounting the Tuesday negotiations, Szydło said they mainly concerned the protesters' plans to escalate the strike, among others by occupying schools. Szydło said the government side had appealed to unions not to do this in view of the approaching school exams.
"In the name of responsibility (...) we asked the union side today to abstain from these plans, and I hope this will happen," Szydło said.
Commenting on the talks, ZNP leader Sławomir Broniarz said the union side expected the government "to come up with proposals that would at least correspond to what the unions are talking about." Broniarz said the union side had forwarded new proposals to appease the conflict, and announced that his union and the Trade Union Forum are upholding their decision to continue the strike.
Sławomir Wittkowicz from the Trade Union Forum said the government had presented no new solutions, hence there were no reasons for suspending or restricting the teacher protest.
"There are no premises for us to consider suspending or limiting the strike action," Wittkowicz told reporters.
He added that one of the union side's proposals at the talks had been to split a postulated 30 percent teacher wage-hike into three tranches, but the government rejected the idea. (PAP)
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