By February 28, nearly 700 people at Rafako—until recently Europe’s largest enterprise producing boilers for the energy sector—will lose their jobs. As part of group layoffs, employees can at best expect severance pay amounting to three times their salary. Since last December, the plant has been in a state of bankruptcy. Union members have issued an open letter to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, pleading for help. However, he has already let the people of Racibórz down once.
It is now autumn 2023. During a meeting with Rafako union representatives, Donald Tusk, candidate for Prime Minister of Poland, promised that if he came to power the plant would be saved. Yet after more than a year of the coalition’s rule, on December 13 group layoffs began at Rafako because in December of last year the District Court in Gliwice declared the plant bankrupt. Nearly 700 people will lose their jobs—practically the entire workforce of the company. The layoffs will be carried out by February 28 this year, with notice periods ending no later than May 31, 2025. Employees can expect severance pay of up to three times their monthly salary—this applies to those who have worked for over eight years; those employed between two and eight years will receive double their salary; and those with less than two years of service will receive one month’s salary as severance. The bankruptcy trustee did not agree to higher severance payments, although the unions had requested them. Moreover, in less than six months, Rafako’s shares are to be withdrawn from stock market trading.
The amount of severance pay is regulated by the provisions concerning group layoffs, as is the manner in which they are carried out. The trustee is making every effort to preserve the possibility of the plant’s continued existence,
— commented Jacek Balcer, Corporate Communications Director and press spokesman for Rafako S.A. in bankruptcy, speaking to Niezalezna.pl.
Poor Economic Situation of the Company
“The decision to initiate group layoffs is due to the company’s poor economic situation, the court’s ruling declaring bankruptcy, the necessity to liquidate the plant—including eliminating positions—and the currently determined lack of any alternative means for the company to conduct business or utilize its resources,” reported Wojciech Zymek, lawyer and bankruptcy trustee for Rafako, in the current report.
Rafako, Europe’s largest producer of boilers for coal-based energy, is also the largest employer in Racibórz—a town of 50,000 residents.
Union members still have full faith in Prime Minister Donald Tusk. They believe it is not too late yet. Last week, Marek Langer, Marek Tylka, and Wiesław Oleszowski, the heads of Rafako’s trade unions, issued an open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to save the plant. The document was also signed by Racibórz’s mayor Jacek Wojciechowicz (from PO), the former deputy of Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (the former mayor of Warsaw), and Racibórz county head Grzegorz Swoboda. They are calling for a prompt response from the Agency for Industrial Development, which is subordinate to the Ministry of State Assets (MAP) and is the owner of the majority of the company’s shares. This is the same agency whose president was just dismissed following reports in Niezalezna.pl about violations of the anti-corruption law.
Blinding the Public’s Eyes
We asked Michał Woś, a member of the Law and Justice party from Racibórz—and, among other roles, a minister in Mateusz Morawiecki’s first and second governments—for his comments on the situation at Rafako.
“Rafako is ingrained in the DNA of Racibórz residents. There isn’t a person here who doesn’t have someone in their family—parents, uncles, cousins—connected to it. Rafako survived the transformation under Balcerowicz. It did not survive a year of Donald Tusk’s government and the December 13 Coalition—the coalition of Mr. Hołownia, Kosiniak, and Czarzasty. During the 2023 campaign, Donald Tusk was here; he wrote the famous slogan on platform X: ‘Mateusz, shift the lever.’ Now we hear: ‘Donald, shift the lever’…”
— Michał Woś tells Niezależna.
“Mr. Tusk also said at that time that he could not imagine ‘a large, private company being ruined by decisions of other large state treasury companies.’ Those are his words—blinding the public’s eyes. But what does reality look like? The direct cause of Rafako’s bankruptcy filing was an application submitted by JSW Koks, a state treasury company operating within JSW.”
“The Fat Cat” of the Platform
According to Woś, the application was submitted by the Civic Platform’s nominee—the so-called “fat pussycat” of the party—Joanna Schmid.
“Racibórz residents show photos of Ms. Schmid from the election evening on October 15, 2023, when she was celebrating Donald Tusk’s victory with others, for example with Mr. Saługa, who is today the Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship. Donald Tusk wasn’t far off; he could have phoned his party nominee and said that he couldn’t imagine a large state treasury company causing Rafako’s collapse,” he adds.
In Woś’s opinion, it was no coincidence that major companies chose Rafako for enormous projects that, technically, exceeded the capabilities of the enterprise—first the Opole project, which was effectively handed over to a German company, and later the famous Jaworzno II project for Tauron, which dragged Rafako down. At that time, state banks arranged a credit line for the Racibórz company, with PKO Bank Polski among the lenders.
Now It’s the Fall of the Green Deal
Nowadays, Rafako has received public aid amounting to 100 million PLN, and the Polish Development Fund has acquired nearly 10 percent of Rafako’s shares. This was done precisely so that the state would know what was happening under the contracts. Donald Tusk deceived both the “Rafako people” and the residents of Racibórz. Now the management of Rafako has been taken over by the bankruptcy trustee, who has given several interviews stating that he is looking for someone to either buy the plant in full or at least lease part of it, in order to preserve this vital asset. Every district heating plant and power plant in Poland that uses 200-ton boilers gets them produced in Racibórz. Rafako is a jewel in the crown of Polish energy, at its peak employing nearly 10,000 people. Bringing Rafako to bankruptcy is a symbolic act by Donald Tusk’s government. Just look: across Poland there is an increase in group layoffs—whether in Gliwice or Bielsko-Biała. This is directly stemming from the Green Deal and the ideas of the European People’s Party (EPP). Now Donald Tusk claims he has nothing to do with it. How can he claim that while standing next to Mr. Weber, head of the EPP? Mr. Weber has repeatedly stated that the EPP is a party of the Green Deal, invented by Mrs. von der Leyen, head of the European Commission. They are one and the same group of people,” adds MP Woś.