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Thousands rally in Warsaw over pay

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 22.09.2018 18:30
Thousands of public-sector employees rallied to demand higher pay in a union protest in Warsaw on Saturday.
Photo: PAP/Jakub KamińskiPhoto: PAP/Jakub Kamiński

The rally, held by the OPZZ trade union organisation, took place under the slogan "Poland needs higher wages."

Union leader Jan Guz argued that wages in the country were too low for many people to survive on despite a booming economy and assurances from authorities that public coffers were well-filled.

“We’ve had enough of having to scrape by on just PLN 1,500 a month or so,” Guz told an applauding crowd, which included teachers, army men, miners, judicial employees, veterinarians, psychologists and other medical professionals, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.

The rally attracted about 20,000 people, PAP reported, citing organisers. The news agency did not immediately give a police estimate of the turnout.

Protesters left a petition at the Prime Minister’s Office with demands including a higher minimum wage and higher pensions, according to PAP.

Poland's largest trade union, Solidarity, did not support the protest.

Poland looking to catch up with Western Europe

Meanwhile, the leader of Poland’s ruling conservatives, Jarosław Kaczyński, said at a convention on Saturday that his governing Law and Justice (PiS) party aimed to help Poland catch up with Western Europe in terms of standard of living and economic development in a short time almost three decades after the end of communism.

The Polish government has proposed increasing the country’s minimum wage next year to PLN 2,250 (EUR 522, USD 605) a month, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said this month.

Average wages in Poland rose 6.8 percent in August compared to the same month last year, the country’s Central Statistical Office said on Tuesday.

The average Polish monthly wage in August was PLN 4,798.27 (EUR 1,116, USD 1,304), the office reported.

Poland’s government last month adopted a preliminary draft budget for 2019, which expects the economy to grow a healthy 3.8 percent, with inflation targeted at 2.3 percent.

The budget is geared toward boosting the country’s economic development and ensures full financing for the government’s key social assistance projects, including its flagship "500-plus" child benefit programme, low-cost housing, subsidised school supplies for children nationwide, and planned “maternal pensions” for women who have given birth to at least four children, officials have said.

Unemployment in Poland fell to a new low of 5.8 percent in August, from 5.9 percent in July, the country’s labour minister has said.

According to the European Union's Eurostat statistics agency, which uses a different methodology, unemployment in Poland was a modest 3.5 percent in July, the third-lowest rate in the 28-nation bloc.

The Polish economy grew 5.1 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to the Central Statistical Office.

(gs)

Source: PAP

tags: protest
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