System signs of statutory regulation of occupational health and safety in the Republic of Poland

Abstract

The study analyses the question of the essence and structure of statutory regulation of occupational health and safety in the Republic of Poland. The relevance of the subject under study is primarily explained by the fact that in Poland, against the background of undoubted economic success, there is an intensive process of improving the legal and organisational foundations of the corresponding range of social and labour relations. The study of this issue is of paramount importance for those countries that had approximately the same “starting conditions” with Poland – the recurrence of state socialism, which devalued the principles of a market economy and the possibility of full protection of working people. The purpose of this study is to present and substantiate the systemic features of occupational health and safety in the Republic of Poland in difficult present-day conditions. The study is based on understanding the methodology as a complex integrated system of perception of reality and scientific cognition, and conducted based on the necessary scope of methods, namely: method of system analysis, historical legal method, structural-functional method, comparison method, special comparative legal method, and cross-temporal analysis. The authors of the present paper noted that the statutory regulation of occupational health and safety in the Republic of Poland has all the features of systemic nature. Most importantly, this is explained by the harmonious correlation of two components: purely statutory and legal support of the corresponding share of social and labour relations. Notably, the statutory regulation of occupational health and safety is undergoing continuous improvement depending on current challenges and threats. For countries that have been united with Poland in the recent past in the form of state socialism, the experience of establishing the work of tripartite participants in social dialogue (government agencies, employers' and workers' representatives) is also important. The scientific value of the present paper primarily lies in the necessity and feasibility of analysing the systemic features of statutory regulation of occupational health and safety. In this case, it is important to use both the method of system analysis and a clear distinction between the concepts “system research” and “research of systems” (the latter in this case appears both as a system of legal regulation of occupational health and safety and as a complex set of public authorities and other organisations involved in the important task of ensuring due occupational health and safety)