During the Lewiatan Confederation conference, devoted to the implementation of the Directive on Equality and Transparency of Salary, experts agreed that companies must prepare for the greatest change in the remuneration system for years.
One of the first problems may be for employers a radical extension of the definition of remuneration. Marcin Wujczyk, legal advisor, professor at the Jagiellonian University explained that the remuneration under the new regulations is understood very broadly, including permanent, variable and additional benefits.
In practice, this means that you will have to include not only the basic salary, but also overtime, housing allowances, compensation for training, and even discretionary bonuses or severance pay. There are questions whether to include, for example, lunch vouchers, sports cards, benefits from the company social benefit fund or the value of a private car used in private.
– It will be difficult to remove the concept of discretionary bonus or rewards from the concept of remuneration against the background of the directive – warned prof. Uncle. In his opinion, such a broad approach requires employers to re -assess all the elements of the payroll system.
How to determine the value of the workplace?
A mandatory value of workplaces may prove to be an even bigger challenge. Agnieszka Wołoszyn, deputy director of the Labor Law Department at the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, explained that every employer would have to ensure the assessment of workplaces based on at least four obligatory criteria. On this basis, it will be possible to determine the structures of remuneration that will be appropriate and will not be discriminatory.
The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy is working on instructions and valuation tools to be available at the beginning of next year. Each workplace will have to be evaluated according to objective criteria – skills, effort, scope of responsibility and working conditions. What's more, these criteria must be agreed with employee representatives.
The directive also emphasizes that soft skills, such as interpersonal skills, emotional effort (important, e.g. in care professions) or responsibility for other people, cannot be ignored.
Krzysztof Walczak, a partner at C&C Chakowski & Ciszek, warned that for part of the organization the changes would be radical. Especially for companies that have not had a reflective approach to remuneration so far and were based on intuitive wage decisions instead of objective criteria. He added that many companies have operated so far according to the principle “if I want, I will give you, I do not want to, I will not give you and what you will do to me.”
No more wages
The change that many employees are waiting for will be the need to disclose information about remuneration. As emphasized by Paweł Śmigielski, director of the legal and intervention department of the National Trade Union Agreement, the topic of remuneration in Poland is taboo. The directive is to change this radically.
Aleksandra Minkowicz-Flank, a legal advisor, partner at the Dentons Chancellery, however, warned against the practical consequences of data complexity. She explained that the employee will receive information about his annual salary converted into an hourly rate, compared with the average salary at a similar position in the company – divided into gender. This can be difficult to interpret without additional explanations.
– Is this information useful? How is it to be used at all to protect the right employee's right? The expert asked, emphasizing the problem of the practical value of such complex combinations. She also noted that disclosure of such information may arouse tensions, especially in small syndromes.
In this context, it is also a key issue to protect the secrets of enterprise. Employers will have to disclose the remuneration rules at the recruitment stage, which may lead to the need to conclude confidentiality contracts with candidates.
The state of knowledge of Polish employers is alarming
The state of preparation of Polish companies raises serious anxiety of experts. Alicja Wejadner, an expert of the Lewiatan Confederation, cited the results of her study: only one fifth of companies has already taken some actions preparing them for change. What's more, 20 percent Employers have not heard of this legislation at all, and 14 percent He believes that there is no pay gap, and any differences in wages have their justification.
– The wage gap is and regardless of how we would swear reality, all studies prove that the problem of lower hourly wages in women actually occurs – emphasized prof. Iga Magda, economist and vice president of the Institute of Structural Research.
There is not only awareness but also competence. Paweł Śmigielski from OPZZ noticed that knowledge about wages and methods of valuing positions is becoming necessary today, and Polish business is not ready for it. He also pointed out that the challenge also applies to trade unionists who must strengthen their competences to conduct a partner and substantive pay dialogue.
Another problem is the need to prepare IT systems for reporting pay gap. Companies will have to adapt their HR and payroll systems to the requirements of compulsory reporting. For many of them, this can mean further investments and training.
The success of the implementation of the directive will depend not only on the quality of national regulations, but above all on the readiness of companies to fundamentally change in the approach to remuneration management. Without proper preparation, the change that was supposed to equalize the chances can instead deepen the chaos and frustration.
