National Prosecutor's Office intervenes in the case of a verdict on nurses' salaries

• The National Prosecutor's Office examined the first court ruling unfavourable to nurses regarding their remuneration
• As a result, the Prosecutor General filed an extraordinary complaint to the Supreme Court against the final judgment of the District Court in Kielce.
• - The reason was the finding of violations of legal provisions in the judgment - the prosecutor's office explains to us
• Since the amendment of the act on minimum wages in healthcare entities in 2022, thousands of nurses and midwives have been fighting in court. In the vast majority with positive results. Also in the Supreme Court
• According to lawyers, the average value of a claim currently ranges from PLN 70,000 to over PLN 90,000 per person. Sometimes a bailiff has to step in.

The topic of the court ruling issued on January 10, 2024 in Kielce regarding the nurses' dispute over wages with the hospital in Staszów is back.

Following the introduction in 2022 of an amendment to the Act on the method of determining the minimum basic salary in healthcare entities, nurses of the Independent Public Healthcare Complex in Staszów - with a master's degree and specialization - were classified by the employer to the 5th and 6th groups of the pay table. The employees sued the hospital for underpaying them basic salary.

By its judgment of June 7, 2023 , the District Court in Sandomierz ruled that from July 1, 2022, the hospital should classify nurses in group 2 .

- The defendant's improper conduct resulted in the payment of salaries in amounts lower than those due . (…) The defendant's decision was dictated solely by the hospital's significant financial problems, but the loss of financial liquidity could not justify acting to the detriment of employees - we read in the judgment.

The hospital filed an appeal and the District Court in Kielce found it justified . At that time, it was the first unfavorable verdict for nurses and midwives in many ongoing cases throughout Poland.

According to the court, there was no violation of the provisions governing the method of determining the basic remuneration of employees of medical entities.

- The Court does not share the findings and reasoning of the District Court that the defendant incorrectly classified the plaintiffs to the appropriate professional group. In the Court's opinion, there is no basis for classifying the plaintiffs differently than the defendant did - we read in the judgment.

It was emphasised that the principles for determining the plaintiffs’ remuneration were specified in Article 3 of the Act and “in accordance with the content of the annex to the Act, professional groups and the work coefficient assigned to each of them are determined according to the qualifications required for the position held.”

The case is being brought back because the verdict has been reviewed by the National Prosecutor’s Office.

As Rynek Zdrowia has established, on May 8, the Prosecutor General filed an extraordinary complaint to the Supreme Court against the final judgment of the District Court in Kielce.

When asked by us about the reasons for filing the complaint, the National Prosecutor’s Office explains that it was found that there were “violations of legal provisions in the judgment of the District Court in Kielce”.

Prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, states that it was found that:

• violation of the principles, freedoms and rights of a human being and a citizen specified in Art. 2 and Art. 65 sec. 4 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, consisting in the unjustified failure to classify the plaintiffs in professional group No. 2, and thus a violation of the requirements specified in the Act on the method of determining the lowest basic salary of certain employees employed in medical entities, setting the minimum amount of remuneration for work;
• a gross violation of substantive law , in the wording established by the Act on the method of determining the lowest basic salary of certain employees employed in medical entities and items no. 2 and 5 of the annex to the above Act, through their improper application and the unjustified assumption that the defendant correctly qualified the plaintiffs employed as specialist nurses to the 5th and 6th professional group, and not to professional group 2, while the employee is assigned to a professional group according to the qualifications required for the job position held;
• an obvious contradiction of the Court’s material findings with the content of the evidence collected by establishing that the plaintiffs were correctly classified as of 1 July 2022 in professional groups No. 5 and 6, whereas by operation of law they should have been classified in group No. 2.

Let us recall that the Supreme Court has already ruled on the nurses' dispute over wages with the Provincial Specialist Hospital No. 2 in Jastrzębie Zdrój. In April, we reported that it had dismissed the hospital's appeal, which disagreed with the positive judgments for nurses in two previous instances .

Attorney Teresa Kaczyńska-Kochaniec, representing the employees, recalled that in December 2022, the hospital gave nurses with a master's degree and specialization notices reducing their classification group, which was associated with paying them lower wages.

- The court of first instance in Jastrzębie Zdrój reinstated the women to group two. In the second instance, the court in Rybnik upheld this favorable verdict. The hospital filed a cassation appeal, which has just been dismissed - Kaczyńska-Kochaniec explained.

The Polish Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives estimates the number of lawsuits over wages in Poland at several or even several thousand.

Nurses fight in three cases:

• demoting with a master's degree and specialization from group 2 to lower groups;
• too high disparity in wages between individual groups when performing the same duties;
• lack of recognition of higher qualifications acquired after the introduction of the Act.

Cases are pending in the first and second instance. In most cases, positive verdicts are issued for nurses.

As calculated by attorney Kaczyńska-Kochaniec, who herself represents about 800 nurses and midwives from a dozen or so hospitals, the current average value of a claim ranges from PLN 70,000 to over PLN 90,000 per person .

Not all hospitals comply with final judgments. This was the case with the Voivodeship Specialist Hospital in Częstochowa, which we described at the beginning of May.

A bailiff had to step in to enforce payment of the nurses' wages. The claim of individual employees amounted to over PLN 17,000. The bailiff's execution increased the costs for the hospital to over PLN 30,000.

Since the amendment of the Remuneration Act, the hospital in Częstochowa has been managed by three directors: Zbigniew Bajkowski, Łukasz Połatyński and, from 1 January 2025, Beata Pochodnia.

Currently, the deputy director for administration is Małgorzata Puchała-Augustyn - privately the wife of Marek Augustyn, whom she replaced in the position at the hospital when he was promoted to vice-president of the National Health Fund in February 2024.

In turn, the deputy director for healthcare is Marcin Pakulski, former vice-president of the National Health Fund (currently also acting president of the National Health Fund), current member of the Team for Systemic Changes in Health Care appointed by the Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna.

In 2022, after the introduction of the Act, the minimum gross wages of nurses and midwives were:

• Group 2. - PLN 7,304.66 - employed in positions requiring a master's degree and specialization
• Group 5 - PLN 5,775.78 - employed in positions requiring a master's degree or employed in positions not requiring a master's degree but requiring specialization
• Group 6 - PLN 5,322.78 - for other nurses and midwives

Currently they are:

• Group 2 - PLN 9,230.57
• Group 5 - PLN 7,298.59
• Group 6 - PLN 6,726.15

After the next indexation, which will take place on July 1, 2025, it will be:

• Group 2 - PLN 10,554.42
• Group 5 - PLN 8,345.35
• Group 6 - PLN 7,690.82

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