Les grandes organisations économiques (W.O.G.).

Abstract

Industrial Unions in Poland (W.O.G.) (A contribution to the study of the economic reform in Poland). The Vlth Polish Unified Workers' Party Congress in Warsaw (December, 1971) elaborated certain improvements to the techniques of administration and management of the Polish economic system. Whereupon the Party and the Government delegated a special commission to propose and implement "model solutions" for a limited number of specially chosen and technically advanced organizations. Although it appears that on the whole the changes adopted are a mere matter of form and do not fundamentally alter the previous system or the planning methods, certain modifications in the practice of foreign trade, price-fixing, investment, finance, etc. are noteworthy. The most far-reaching changes have been introduced in the administration and planning methods of the great industrial unions (W.O.G.), which is a consortium grouping certain firms and several thousands employees in the industrial, trade branches, etc. The function of these unions is to coordinate production and encourage industrial specialization. They are supposedly autonomous, having extended authority and the appropriate means of applying advanced decision-making techniques. Even more elastic statutes have been accorded to approximately thirty of them, consisting of techniques especially designed for the organizations in question with specific regulations concerning the reciprocal obligations of management and production units, according to the specific economic needs. The central plan continues to be directive and compulsory, but certain economic indicators have been abolished. Pluriannual norms and coefficients have been set forth to achieve the plan objectives. Administrative limitation of salary funds will be abolished, and the latter will henceforth depend on the firm's net income (added-value). The great industrial unions will also have more freedom to use and distribute salary funds. The amount of profit is the criterion for te evaluation of the organization's economic results. After the payment of investment loans and other liabilities, the remaining profit is divided into to separate funds — the employees' incentive fund, from which fringe benefits are drawn, and the development fund for the constitution of self-financing of stocks and investments. The current practice of a tax levy on gross benefits to enhance the budget will be progressively reduced by a proportional tax on fixed and circulating capital and on the salary fund. In spite of the fact that the present price system, arbitrarily decreed and fixed by Central Authority, is far from a healthy economic indicator, nothing, at present, indicates how or when it will be changed. To efface certain anomalies in the official price system, certain industrial unions are authorized to establish internal prices, based on real production costs but only applicable within their group of firms. This should permit a more accurate evaluation of economic achievements.