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Timestamp: 2017-10-24 04:05:51+00:00

Document:
WORKERS’ REPRESENTATIVES IN SUPERVISORY BOARDS IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MUNICIPAL COMPANIES - Polish Journal of Management Studies
WORKERS’ REPRESENTATIVES IN SUPERVISORY BOARDS
IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MUNICIPAL COMPANIES
Abstract: The article raises the subject of the functioning of workers’ representatives of municipal companies in supervising bodies of these companies i.e. supervisory boards. Pursuant to the analysis of the regulations of the code of trading companies and regulations which normalise the functioning of local government and municipal economy of the units of local government, the article presents an institution of the board of supervisors, the creation of these authorities, their competence and methods of realising supervisory tasks, emphasising the peculiarities which distinguish supervisory boards of communal companies in comparison with supervisory boards of companies without the participation of local government units. It also discusses practical consequences of the existing legal status in the field of participation of municipal companies’ employees in their supervisory boards on the basis of the study carried out in one-man companies of a local government unit. The author’s conclusions about the participation of municipal company workers in supervisory boards indicate a necessity to explicitly and homogeneously regulate this issue with regard to all the communal companies.
Keywords: a unit of local government, municipal economy, municipal company, supervisory boards, workers’ representatives in the supervisory board
The notion of a municipal company has not been directly defined in Polish legislation, yet it has been put into common circulation due to the content of regulations which determine the system of functioning of a local authority in the Republic of Poland, and which determine forms and principles of municipal economy of local government units.
Municipal economy is conducted mainly in the form of a budgetary institution or communal company [6, p.36]. In order to introduce the concept of a municipal company, it is necessary to determine what should be understood under the notion of municipal economy. Municipal economy includes public utility tasks of the municipality, whose aim is to meet collective needs of the residents by providing services, e.g. within the scope of technical infrastructure: media delivery, refuse collection, transport [8 p.49]. In laws which regulate the activity of units of local government, understood as municipal economy, we will not find a legal definition of this term. However, an analysis of tasks of local government units of public utility allows defining what municipal economy includes and what its aims are.
The Law from 8 March 1990 on a local government (i.e. Dz. U.{This abbreviation stands for Dziennik Ustaw – the Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland [transl.]} 2001 No. 142, pos. 1591) states that one of the own tasks of a municipality is to satisfy collective needs of the community (art. 7 act 1).
Furthermore, the aforementioned law says that tasks of public utility, as defined by the law, are own tasks of a municipality, defined in art. 7 act 1, whose aim is to systematically and incessantly satisfy collective needs of the population by way of providing widely available services (art. 9 act 4).
A complementary deed to the law on local government, with reference to the discussed issues, is the bill from 20 December 1996 on municipal economy (Dz. U. 1997 No. 9, pos. 43 with further amendments). This law determines the rules and forms of municipal economy of local government units, which lie in performing own tasks by these units, in order to meet collective needs of a municipal community (art. 1 act 1). Bearing in mind art. 1 law 2 on municipal economy: „Municipal economy includes in particular tasks of public utility, whose aim is to systematically and continuously satisfy collective needs of the population by way of providing widely available services.”
Forms of running municipal economy are defined by art. 2 of the law saying that: „Municipal economy may be operated by units of local government especially in the forms of municipal budgetary institution or companies of commercial law”. A supplement to the model of municipal economy, created by the quoted law, is included in the regulation of art. 3 law 1 stating that: „Units of local authority, under the terms of the agreement, may entrust performing municipal economy tasks to natural persons, legal persons, or to organisational units that do not possess legal personality, taking into account regulations of the law from 27 August 2009 on public finances (Dz. U. No. 157, pos. 1240, with further amendments), as a matter of statutory provisions from 19 December 2008 for public-private partnership (Dz. U. from 2009 No. 19, pos. 100 and from 2010 No. 106, pos. 675), statutory provisions from 9 January 2009 for a concession on building works or services (Dz. U. No. 19, pos. 101, with further amendments), provisions of statutory law from 29 January 2004 – The Law of public auction (Dz. U. from 2010 No. 113, pos. 759, No. 161, pos. 1078 & No. 182, pos. 1228), statutory provisions from 24 April 2003 for public utilities and voluntary service (Dz. U. from 2010 No. 234, pos. 1530) and acts from 16 December 2010 on public mass transportation (Dz. U. No. 5, pos. 13) or on general principles. ...
The problem of participation of municipal company employees in their supervisory boards has not found clear, comprehensive regulations in the provisions of the law. As long as in case of one-man companies established as a result of transforming municipal companies the situation is lucid, in case of partnerships with the participation of local government units established on general principles, the issue of participation of the workers’ representatives in supervisory boards requires complementary use of generally valid regulations of the code of commercial companies and local government laws, in particular the law on municipal economy, often with the use of teleological interpretation of these regulations. Maintaining such a situation is, as it seems, with the detriment to the institution of the board of directors of municipal companies, as well as to the interests of municipal company workers.
Offering uniform solutions in terms of the participation of municipal company workers in their supervisory boards, modelled on art. 13 of the act on commercialisation and privatisation, at the same time in accordance with the rules resulting from art.18 of the law on municipal economy, would undoubtedly be beneficial for both improving the professional competence of the members of supervisory boards and ensuring their impartiality, avoiding the conflict of interests and corruptive situations, and at the same time favourable for the proper achievement of the objectives of the establishment and operation of supervisory authorities in municipal companies.
PRZEDSTAWICIELE PRACOWNIKÓW W RADACH NADZORCZYCH W ZARZĄDZANIU SPÓŁKAMI KOMUNALNYMI
Streszczenie: Artykuł porusza temat funkcjonowania przedstawicielI pracowników spółek komunalnych w nadzorowaniu organów tych spółek, tj. rad nadzorczych. Zgodnie z analizą przepisów kodeksu spółek handlowych i wykonawczych, które normalizują funkcjonowanie samorządu terytorialnego oraz gospodarki komunalnej jednostek samorządu terytorialnego, w artykule przedstawiono instytucję rady nadzorczej, tworzenie tych organów, ich kompetencje i metody realizacji zadań nadzorczych, podkreślając specyfikę, która odróżnia rady nadzorcze spółek komunalnych w porównaniu z radaą nadzorczą spółek, bez udziału jednostek samorządu terytorialnego. Na podstawie badań przeprowadzonych w jednoosobowych spółkach jednostek samorządu terytorialnego, omówione zostały również praktyczne konsekwencje obecnego stanu prawnego w zakresie uczestnictwa pracowników komunalnych spółek w ich radach nadzorczych.
Słowa kluczowe: jednostka samorządu lokalnego, ekonomia komunalna, przedsiębiorstwo komunalne, rada nadzorcza, przedstawiciel pracowników w radzie nadzorczej
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References: art. 7
 art. 1
 art. 2
 art. 3
 art. 13
 art.18