Workers’ pension insurance in Poland, in the years 1918–1939

Anna Jarosz-Nojszewska

The Polish state, which came into existence after the World War I, composed mainly of lands, that for almost one and a half of a century remained under Russian, German, and Austrian annexation. Different level of development of the industry in those countries was a cause of the different situation of workers in different regions. It had an impact on such things as e.g. insurance legislation, that Poland inherited from the partitioners. The most developed industry was in Germany, which is why Germany had the most developed insurance system. In former Austrian partition, the only kind of workers’ insurance was the miners’ fund. On the lands of the former Russian partition, only the miners’ of the Dąbrowa Basin were insured. Such diversity made it hard for the state to run a homogenous policy concerning pension and retirement benefits. To create a homogenous social security system became the main problem. The most important thing was to maintain the privileges of the prior systems. It meant, that creating a system of benefits no smaller than those in the former Prussian partition was a must. The general health insurance and unemployment insurance were quickly introduced. However it took much longer to come up with an entire system of insurances. A crucial step towards the creation of the Polish social security system was the decree on the white-collar workers insurance, and the subsequent unification act. It was also important to increase the benefits of the blue-collar workers, which were much smaller than those of the white-collar workers. Unfortunately the retirement insurances for the blue-collar workers, introduced by the unification act, hadn’t changed much up till 1939.