System emerytalny dla urzędników Wolnego Miasta Krakowa. Część I: lata 1815–1837

Abstract

Pension Schemes for the Officials of the Free City of Cracow. Part I: 1815–1837 This article examines the evolving legal underpinning of the pension schemes for the officials of the Free City of Cracow. The first part of this study reconstructs the principles of awarding retirement pensions in 1815–1833. The pensions were financed from the public budget, following an endorsement by the Assembly of Deputies and the Governing Senate. Then the article reviews the debate in the Assembly over the Pension Bill and the circumstances in which the Pension Fund Act was adopted on 18 September 1833. A detailed examination of this Act considers its scope, i.e. the categories of persons entitled to a retirement pension (full-time and part-time office workers, their widows and children), conditions of eligibility, sources of the financing the pension fund (employers’ contributions, donations, subsidies from the state budget), and the level of pension payments. The article also retraces the processing of pension awards, overseen by the Pension Committee, a body established by the Senate to supervise the proper functioning of the pension scheme, and looks into the calculation methods employed by the Pension Fund. The article is based almost exclusively on original sources from the National Archives at Cracow, supplemented by materials published in the official gazettes (The Legal Gazette of the Free City of Cracow and the Government Daily).