The act on loan and assistance funds passed last week’s parliamentary vote. The document regulates, above all, the principles of operation, the conditions for establishing as well as the principles of controlling the functioning of credit unions in a given employing entity with no trade unions.

The possibility of creating a loan and assistance fund in a given enterprise arises when at least 10 employees notify the employer of their willingness to participate in the fund register. The main purpose of its operation is to provide financial support to employees. From the funds of the credit union, it is possible to grant short-term and long-term loans and allowances in the event of difficult life situations.

The funds collected in the cash register come from the monthly payments of employees who are participants of the loan and assistance fund. The contribution accumulated by each employee is his capital, from which loans can be granted, and in the event of termination of the employment relationship, it is fully paid to the employee’s account.

Assistance and loan Funds were established under the Act on Trade Unions (Act on Trade Unions of May 23, 1991, Journal of Laws 1991 No. 55, item 234), where Article 39 states that ” loans, the members of which may be persons performing gainful employment, retirees and disability pensioners, regardless of their trade union membership “. The current amendment to the regulations provide the following changes:

• Enabling the appointment of credit fund not only by employees, but also by persons employed on the basis of other titles, eg contractors and self-employed persons. In a given workplace, the readiness to join a loan and assistance fund will have to be reported by 10 employed people, and then the statute of this entity will have to be passed, which will define, first of all, what forms of assistance will be available to the members of the credit union and how and in what amount the funds will be collected from participants,
• Payment of a loan or allowance in a difficult life situation will, in principle, be made in a non-cash form to the indicated account of the employed person. Only in exceptional circumstances will the payment be made in cash at the request of a member of the loan and assistance fund,
• Exclusion of the allowance from bailiff enforcement – payment of the allowance would not be subject to the obligation to transfer the amount to the bailiff’s account.

The act is currently at the legislative stage and has been submitted for consideration by the Senate.

This post is also available in: PL