Right to access to public service
Z Encyklopedia Administracji Publicznej
RIGHT TO ACCESS TO PUBLIC SERVICE – a constitutional right, granting the Polish citizens enjoying full public rights the right of access to the public service based on the principle of equality. This right means access, not guarantees of admission to public service (p.s.), because the bodies and institutions concerned by this regulation have the right to formulate additional conditions for admission to a particular position in the p.s., taking into account its type and essence. However, these cannot be discriminatory requirements (according to the case law of the Constitutional Tribunal), but those that relate to education, criminal record, special skills and character traits. There is no legal definition of p.s., in narrow sense, it is assumed that it only means → civil service. In a broader sense, the p.s. should also include the employees of state offices, local government employees, foreign service workers, and employees of courts and public prosecutor's office. In even broader sense, it also includes positions in institutions executing p.s., like army, Police, the Internal Security Agency, the Intelligence Agency, Border Patrol, Custom Service, Prison Service, Military Gendarmerie, or State Fire Service. Exceptionally, there are views that the public service should also include the positions related with performing still other public functions, like member of parliament, senator, the President of the Republic of Poland, the Prime Minister, minister, councillor, village mayor, mayor, president of the city, the Commissioner for Citizens’ Rights, the Children's Rights Advocate, the President of the Supreme Audit Office, etc. (→ civil service; local-government employees; public official; official) [ I. Malinowska ].
Literature: I. Malinowska, Zróżnicowanie pracowników służby publicznej w Polsce [Diversification of public service employees in Poland], [in:] Prawne i aksjologiczne aspekty służby publicznej [Legal and axiological aspects of public service], ed. K. Miaskowska-Daszkiewicz, M. Mazuryk, Lublin – Warszawa 2010 ■ P. Winczorek, Komentarz do Konstytucji Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 2 kwietnia 1997 r. [Commentary to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of April 2, 1997], Warszawa 2008.