The President of the Polish Teachers' Union, Sławomir Broniarz, recalled on Tuesday that the Sejm is currently considering a bill on teachers' salaries, the first reading of which will take place in 2024. Deputy Minister of National Education, Katarzyna Lubnauer, informed PAP that in the meantime, many actions have been taken to improve the prestige of the profession, including an increase in salaries.
On Tuesday, on the X portal, the president of the Polish Teachers' Union, Sławomir Broniarz, referred to Prime Minister Donald Tusk's announcement that the government would submit ready-made bills, but if necessary, “it will govern and make decisions, even with the president trying to block good changes”. “Prime Minister Tusk said +we will submit ready-made bills+. One is already on the table, from 25.01.2024”, wrote Broniarz. He asked, “so what is the Sejm waiting for?”
Prime Minister Tusk said “we will submit ready-made bills”. One is already on the table, from 25.01.2024. So what is the Sejm waiting for?
— Sławomir Broniarz (@Broniarz) June 3, 2025
On January 25 last year, the Sejm held another first reading of the ZNP citizens' bill on teachers' salaries. The proposal envisages linking teachers' salaries to the average wage in the economy. At the end of April this year, unionists appealed to the Prime Minister to “seriously deal with teachers' salaries”. The issue of work on the bill had been raised by them many times before.
PAP asked Deputy Minister of Education Katarzyna Lubnauer to comment on Broniarz's post. In response, the deputy head of the Ministry of National Education recalled the actions taken by the Ministry of National Education since January 24, 2024.
She indicated, among other things, that ” teachers have already received almost 40 percent of the cumulative pay rise in the case of novice teachers and 36.5 percent in the case of appointed and certified teachers (…), we have started work and consultations have already been held on the Act on the Teachers' Charter”, which introduces many solutions expected by teachers, e.g. a retirement bonus twice as high as before and a jubilee bonus after 45 years, “but also the issue of regulating the settlement of overtime hours”.
She also stressed that the Ministry has a Team for Professional Pragmatics of Teachers and that the dialogue between the Ministry of National Education and all trade unions is “still ongoing”.
“It's not that we don't realize that we need to strengthen the prestige of the teaching profession and work towards making teachers a well-paid group. A group that is satisfied with their work,” Lubanuer said.
As she noted, “for us, the issue of teacher autonomy is a very important element.” She argued that this can be seen “in every new core curriculum,” e.g. health or civic education, and the topics included in them, e.g. optional ones, “which increase teacher autonomy.”
“We are working to improve the prestige and attractiveness of the teaching profession, and these are not empty words,” she noted. She pointed out that spending on education from the state budget has increased “to PLN 103 billion, or 55 percent in two years,” which “indicates very clearly that this is one of our priorities.”
In response to the unionists' claim that last year's first reading of the bill was a second first reading, the deputy minister said: “There is a subcommittee, it will certainly meet, but this is already the work of the Sejm. From what I know, it will probably meet again in June.” At the same time, she noted that “we must be aware that the actions taken by the Ministry of Education (National) are always also related to the possibilities of the state budget and it is clear that these recent actions in the last two years have very clearly shown that decent teacher salaries are important to us.”
Asked if there was a chance that work on the bill would be completed by the end of the calendar year, Lubnauer replied: “I can't answer that question because I'm not in charge of the bill (…). It's a bill that's in the subcommittee's work.”
Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised in November that work on the bill would be accelerated. As he assured at the time, “there will be no more delays”. The education committee, to which the bill was referred, has established an extraordinary subcommittee to work on the bill. Three meetings have been held so far, two of which were technical in nature (election of the presidium, setting the schedule). According to information on the Sejm website, no further meetings are planned in the near future.
The ZNP citizens' bill amending the Teachers' Charter was submitted to the Sejm in November 2021. It collected over 250,000 signatures – two and a half times more than the required minimum. The first reading of the bill was carried out in February 2022. It then went to the committee, where no further work was carried out.
In the case of civic projects, the principle of discontinuation at the end of the parliamentary term does not apply, which is why the current term of office of the deputies returned to the draft amendment. The first reading of the draft was held again on January 25, 2024. Broniarz argued at the time that “the current system of teachers' salaries is extremely arbitrary, non-transparent, non-objective and fully depends on the decisions of politicians”. Therefore – as he said – it is necessary to shape the amount of teachers' salaries based on an objective indicator.
Currently, the amount of teachers' salaries is derived from the base amount for teachers specified each year in the budget act. It is used to calculate the so-called average salary for teachers (it is specified in the Teachers' Charter as a percentage for each level of professional advancement). It consists of the basic salary and several allowances. The amount of the minimum basic salary for teachers at each level of professional advancement is specified in a regulation by the Minister of Education. (PAP)
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