It turns out that respect for public service professions and healthcare workers during a pandemic is fundamental for societal relations. Inspired by such solutions as the Large Family Card, or soldier and veteran support, MP Paweł Kowal came out with the initiative “We, In Solidarity” — about which he spoke during the event “WORK Congress - The New Solidarity?” It is an idea to create a kind of Medical Personnel Card — of systemic support for doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and volunteers. The draft bill of support for those involved in counteracting COVID-19, “We, In Solidarity”, was submitted to the Sejm Marshall’s Gavel by the Civic Coalition Parliamentary Club.
The point of the bill is the statutory guarantee of a network of support for this professional group, and it also involves local government and entrepreneurs — local governments in solidarity and entrepreneurs in solidarity. For example, the state has at its disposal a network of sanatoria and can organize additional psychological help free of charge. Firms can offer discounts on their products and services, and local governments can facilitate access to transport, culture, and sports activities. The entirety of the law would be an important gesture of solidarity. It would, in a way, intertwine into the legal framework and organization all of the spontaneous acts of help for workers of the healthcare system fighting the pandemic every day (of which we were witnesses). The group of beneficiaries of the law is to be open so that, for example, laboratory workers, research units, and other professional and societal groups can also take advantage of it.
A condition of obtaining support is “specific involvement in counteracting COVID-19," defined as “performing activities under conditions of significantly increased risk of infection with the coronavirus, or in a way characterized by a significantly larger degree of sacrifice, scrupulousness, diligence, or creativity than that required of a worker or person providing a service within any other legal relation than an employment relationship”.
Whether or not a given person fulfills these criteria is decided on by the District Administrator or City/Town President, and the document confirming a right to benefits has to be a personalized card whose holders enjoy — patterned on the Large Family Card — access to goods and services on a preferential basis.
The project also sets up the awarding of a new state decoration — establishing a Medal of Merit counteracting COVID-19 which would be granted by the President.
The law, whose initiators are MP Paweł Kowal and the Analysis Center of the International Institute of Civil Society, and the Social Dialogue Committee of the National Chamber of Commerce, would take effect until 1 January 2026.
A consultative debate dedicated to the initiative “We, In Solidarity” took place in June 2020. A summary is available here.