The meeting was attended by: Elżbieta Radwan (Association of Polish Cities, Mayor of Wołomin), Katarzyna Sadło (Foundation for Civil Society Development), Andrzej Arendarski (Polish Chamber of Commerce) and Marek Kłoczko (Polish Chamber of Commerce). The debate was moderated by Konrad Ciesiołkiewicz (chairman of KDS KIG).

Institutions of social dialogue operating in Poland, headed by the Social Dialogue Council, are not able to effectively implement the ambitious goals that have been set before them. The unrepresentative composition and low level of political culture are just some of the problems that hinder their functioning. In order to be able to meet the challenges of changing the structure of the economy and society, they need a new opening.

The online discussion, on March 25, under the auspices of the Polish Chamber of Commerce (KIG), was opened by the chairman of the Social Dialogue Committee of the Polish Chamber of Commerce, Konrad Ciesiołkiewicz, who emphasized that the institutions of social dialogue are firmly rooted in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The dialogue is to be conducted at the local, provincial and central level - with the Social Dialogue Council (RDS) at the forefront. The act imposes extremely ambitious goals on RDS, including supporting socio-economic development and innovation, promoting the principles of solidarity and participation, improving the state's public policies, as well as building capital and social cohesion. "The dialogue itself is a defining element of the social market economy," added the chairman of the KDS.

In the first part of the discussion, experts diagnosed the problems that RDS has to deal with. "The time of the pandemic shows that we need dialogue and meetings of various environments, and RDS is not a place where such meetings take place," said Andrzej Arendarski, President of the Polish Chamber of Commerce. He saw the reasons for this state of affairs in the RDS, which does not include, inter alia, non-governmental organizations or representatives of local governments. He also recognized the shallowness of Polish democracy as a problem, which makes it closed to discussions with political opponents. His statements were supported by Katarzyna Sadło, an expert of the Civil Society Development Foundation (FRSO), who added that RDS is a forum for dialogue between the government and organizations of employers and employees, which do not include groups, e.g. self-employed or retired, which are growing every year. She also identified the threshold of 300,000 members as a problem for trade unions that may belong to the RDS. This rules out many smaller entities. Elżbieta Radwan, a board member of the Association of Polish Cities and the mayor of Wołomin, emphasized the absence of organizations associating local governments in the RDS. Their opinions, analyzes and positions are also ignored by the government, leading to legislative chaos. "All the key decisions regarding the directions of local government development, which were taken in the last few years, were made over our heads," added the mayor of Wołomin. Marek Kłoczko, vice president and general director of the Polish Chamber of Commerce, agreed with the previous speakers on the need to reform the RDS composition and assessed that the current structure of the council reflects the social realities of the 1970s and 1980s and does not correspond to contemporary needs. "All relevant participants who articulate the real interests of society as a whole should participate in the dialogue," he added.

In a comment to the first part of the debate, Jarosław Urbański, a journalist and one of the founders of the Polish Workers' Initiative Trade Union, recalled that the union membership has sharply decreased in recent years and the position of employees in relation to employers has deteriorated. In such an arrangement, dialogue at the workplace level is asymmetric and the relationship is authoritarian. "Social dialogue should assume a balance of parties," he said. In turn, Elżbieta Szadzińska, vice-president of the Consumers' Federation, recalled her positive experiences from working in the Trilateral Commission (predecessor of RDS). The Consumers' Federation had observer status there, and the RDS did not provide for such a category. The vice-president of the Consumers' Federation also described the functioning of the Social and Economic Committee, which is representative in terms of its members and taken seriously by other EU bodies and was considered exemplary by the participants of the debate.

In the second part of the debate, in which experts proposed solutions to problems oppressing the dialogue, Katarzyna Sadło, an expert from FRSO, indicated that the goals set for the RDS should be adjusted to its actual composition. She proposed to make greater use of the existing instrument of inviting non-permanent members to the work of the RDS. She stressed that it is important to activate citizens and disseminate knowledge about the institutions of social dialogue that exist today, which are on the margins of socio-political life. She proposed mapping the bodies and procedures by which citizens can speak. She considered political culture to be of key importance for the functioning of dialogue. "Without culture, you can get around any procedure," she said.

Marek Kłoczko, vice president of the Polish Chamber of Commerce, drew attention to the exceptionally low level of social capital in Poland, compared to other developed countries. He considered promoting good manners as important as building efficiently functioning institutions of dialogue. He sees the improvement of RDS efficiency in the regular updating of the model of its functioning, necessary due to the high dynamics of social changes. "It is also necessary to use digital tools in the public debate, such as social media and virtual dialogue platforms, which will allow larger groups of citizens to be attracted to it," added the vice president of the Polish Chamber of Commerce. Elżbieta Radwan, a board member of the Association of Polish Cities and the mayor of Wołomin, agreeing with the previous speaker, added that at the municipal level consultations are already conducted en masse via the Internet. She also proposed the creation of the institution of the Social Dialogue Ombudsman, who would be responsible for the entire dialogue process. "We have organized an economic and territorial self-government, and now we have to fight for its vote to be taken into account," continued the president of the Polish Chamber of Commerce, Andrzej Arendarski. This requires bottom-up pressure from social organizations, which should collectively influence the government. The President of the Polish Chamber of Commerce also proposed to create a discussion forum for those organizations that are not included in the RDS. In the future, it could turn into a permanent institution where everyone could have their say.