Minister Sławomir Nitras took up the transformation of the face of Polish sport. It is not expected that his intervention will bring the country Olympic successes or football victories... We will have parities, anti-discrimination regulations – solutions from the left handbook. This is only the beginning of a minister's venture in Donald Tusk's government...
During the Thursday gathering at the National Stadium, the Minister of athletics spoke with journalists, among others, about the task on "strengthening women's position" in sport. He pointed out that the solutions proposed in the draft were only the beginning of the planned changes.
The task of the Ministry of athletics and Tourism, which is presently in the interministerial consultation phase, includes changes to the scholarship for women's national staff who are pregnant or have given birth to a child. Currently, players receive a 50% scholarship during pregnancy and six months after the birth of the child. The task envisages extending this period to 1 year after transportation and expanding the amount collected during this period from 50% to 81.5 percent of the grant amount.
The head of the sports ministry cited an example of 1 of the Polish representatives whose union received a postnatal scholarship due to the fact that she returned to training before the end of six-month leave. However, she was not reinstated with a regular scholarship – "they recognized that only erstwhile she brought a doctor's certificate that she could (training – PAP) give it to her," said the head of the sports ministry.
Nitras pointed out that athletes frequently do not realize their rights – in this case, it would have been to appeal to the minister himself, as women were entitled to pay.
According to the head of MSiT, the problem of this deficiency of cognition stems from the fact that the Sports Act was written under sports unions – There is no definition of athlete in Polish law, it is not known what athlete has rights, what duties, what he has. The consequence of this was that there is no specified individual as an athlete in the Sports Regulations Act, no specified individual as a player. said the politician KO.
The government task besides provides for changes in the membership of women in the sports union authorities. They are to be 30 percent if the number of board members is more than five. If there are less members, at least 1 male and female typical will be on the board.
Another of the proposed changes is the introduction of absurd anti-discrimination rules. They foresee, among others, the introduction of the function of a spokesperson for the protection of the rights of players and another persons active in sports competition and anti-violence and discrimination representatives in sport.
Nitras said that the Council of Ministers should adopt the draft amendments to the bill by September at the latest. He besides mentioned that at the beginning of the Olympic Games in Paris, the run of the Ministry of athletics and Tourism will be launched in the media, in which action ambassadors, including Katarzyna Zillmann and Justyna Kowalczyk-Tekieli, will advance changes in the situation of women in sport. The politician announced that Polish footballers intend to join the action in the future.
MSiT besides prepared a draft amendment to the athletics Act for determining the fresh rates of the basis for establishing the amount of sports scholarship and cash prizes. Since 2005 the base amount is PLN 2,300. After the amendment of the Act, it would be equal to the minimum wage and so be revalorised. This task was considered positively by the Sejm committee and aimed at second reading.
(PAP)/work. FA
