Aspects of precarity among employees of the Polish healthcare system

Abstract

<b>Introduction</b>: Authors analyze aspects of social stratification proposed by Guy Standing with respect to key medical professions performing work in Polish publicly funded medical entities. <b>Purpose</b>: The aim of the paper is to assess how health care providers can be assigned to particular classes and if the precarity phenomenon occurs in their work environment. <b>Materials and methods</b>: An overview of statistical data was made on how health care providers performed their work in years 2005- 2014 and the pay rates in 2014. <b>Results</b>: The vast majority of medical staff employed on the basis of civil law contracts were doctors. A smaller number of civil law contracts has been concluded by nurses and midwives. The number of nurses performing work on this kind of contracts has increased considerably since 2005 and in 2014 there were 10.27% of them. A senior nurse earned PLN 2,600.00. It was very small in comparision with average gross remuneration in the national economy in 2014 amounted to PLN 3,783.46. Unemployment existed in population of nurses was 2.3–2.8%. It is called tyhe natural unemployment. <b>Conclusions</b>: It was found that precarity phenomena occur in the Polish healthcare system although none of the professions met all the criteria attributed to the precariat.