Teachers are waiting for Tusk's promises. ZNP has been demanding wages from September

We want the government, and in particular Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who declared accelerating work on the civic legislative initiative, take care of teachers seriously – ZNP appealed on Monday. He wants teachers' salary from September this year. increased by 10 percentage points.

The head of the government of the National Congress of the ZNP delegates undertaken to accelerate work on the project on teachers' salaries. As he assured then, “there will be no more delay.” The solution involves linking the amount of teachers' salaries with the average salary in the economy. “Worthy wages and high prestige of teachers” is a civic initiative, which ZNP brought to the Sejm in 2021.

During the Monday press conference, the president of the ZNP Sławomir Broniarz reminded that the first reading of the project took place in January 2024. “I have to regret that from that moment, apart from strictly technical actions, such as the appointment of the commission, the appointment of the chairman (…), nothing has improved and did not change” – he assessed. He added, incl. A specially appointed Extraordinary Commission “de facto did not start substantive work.”

ZNP wants to know if the Sejm “intends to seriously” to work on the initiative. “We would be very happy if it turned out that in 2026 or 2027 the Prime Minister would announce that the average salary in the economy is equal to teachers' salary,” said Broniarz.

“We would like – and this is an appeal to the Prime Minister – that the government, in particular the prime minister, who (…) declared the need to accelerate work on the civic legislative initiative, take seriously paying teachers – hence our appeal regarding that the teacher's remuneration has increased by 10 percentage points from September this year,” said Broniarz.

As he justified, ZNP has repeatedly said, also at a meeting of the Social Dialogue Council, that he expected teachers' wages in 2025 to increase by 15 percent. “They have increased by only 5 percent. Now, however, we expect equalization to this 15 % indicator,” he added.

Vice President of ZNP Urszula Woźniak emphasized that teachers should be rewarded “at least similar” as other employees with similar qualifications, but also with similar responsibility and similar working conditions. As she argued, teachers' working conditions deteriorate and the salaries do not grow.

“We do not envy anyone, but we note that (…) medical competitions have a connection to the average salary in the economy and from July 1 their remuneration will increase from PLN 700 to PLN 1,500,” she said. She added that “it cannot be that a medical worker with a education below secondary receives a higher salary than a master's teacher with pedagogical preparation, an appointed teacher, i.e. after all exams,” added Woźniak.

To the question of what actions ZNP will propose, if the appeal does not meet with approval or answer, Broniarz replied: “We assume that education is one of the most important areas of social life.”

He added that if the response to the appeal is not positive, “unfortunately, we will have to take actions that are described even in the Act on the resolution of collective disputes and in trade unions.” “We hope that it does not have to reach such escalation, but we assume that on the other side there are responsible and conscious tensions that are currently in our environment,” added Broniarz.

ZNP also drew attention to the need to improve the working conditions of teachers, because it becomes “less and less attractive”. (PAP)

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