International Labour Organization (Poland)

Poland was one of the founder members of the ILO in 1919.

Viewed from a historical perspective the most important milestone of the cooperation between Poland and the ILO was the dispute to provide a legal status to Solidarnosc, Poland’s most famous free trade union movement established in 1980. From there, the road ultimately led to free elections in Poland and many other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, European Union membership, and Poland’s new role in the international arena.

Since the early 1990s ILOs support to Poland focused on reforming labour markets in the context of a transition from a centrally planned economy to a socially responsible market economy. This was followed by helping Poland to align labour market and social policies with EU directives preparing the country for EU membership. After EU accession in 2004 ILO supported new forms of active labour market policies in order to increase the employment rate and reduce long-term unemployment, provided advice on minimum wage policies, and promoted rights based migration of Polish domestic workers.

Poland is under the responsibility of the ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Office for Central and Eastern Europe