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Mr. Rochester
Joined: 15 Jul 2003
Posts: 6
Location: Somewhere in Europe
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 Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:31 am Post subject: Polish Labor Law |
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I've just started teaching in Poland. To ensure that my new employer won't pull any fast ones, I'd like to find out if there's any information out there in English about Polish Labor Law. Specifically, I'm wondering about how many hours per week do you have to work to be considered a full-time employee, paid holidays, and reimbursement for travel costs to off-site classes.
Any info or links anyone can provide would be appreciated. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:49 am Post subject: Labour Code in Polska |
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Can't you check this out with a trade union ? "Solidarity" was after all behind the changes of 1989. They must still have some presence. What about the other unions ? The successors to the Stalinist unions that may have survived the changes.
In another country in the former socialist bloc I found that trade unions were helpful and ready to extend fraternal advice. Alas many entrants to this "profession" have little awareness of the function of a good TU, and seem to have more interest in scoring with the local chicks or getting drunk.
Last edited by scot47 on Mon May 31, 2004 8:03 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Alex Shulgin
Joined: 20 Jul 2003
Posts: 553
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| Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:01 pm Post subject: Re: Polish Labor Law |
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| Mr. Rochester wrote: |
I've just started teaching in Poland. To ensure that my new employer won't pull any fast ones, I'd like to find out if there's any information out there in English about Polish Labor Law. Specifically, I'm wondering about how many hours per week do you have to work to be considered a full-time employee, paid holidays, and reimbursement for travel costs to off-site classes.
Any info or links anyone can provide would be appreciated. |
Forget it. In practical terms you have virtually no rights at all. I suppose you could technically get the employer up in court for some things but are you planning to stay in Poland for the three to five years that it would take for any case to get to court? Got money for a lawyer? Think you can beat the local system where people know each other and will close ranks to protect Poland from the foreigners? You might as well not bother with a contract for all the good that it does you. It is rare to find a teacher who has been here for a few years and hasn't been ripped off by one school or another. A very good friend of mine was fired with no notice whatsoever for insisting that he was paid what was stated in his contract (his boss said that the contract contained a mistake so she wouldn't pay what she had agreed to pay).
Besides you don't want to be a full-time employee anyway. If you are a full-time employee you have to pay slightly more tax (stepped tax as opposed to a flat 16%) and you have to pay social insurance contributions which total 54% of your salary, you want 27% and the employer pays 27%. Of course as a foreigner you are not allowed to take any of the benefits that you have paid for but you must pay for them anyway. Best not to bother and just pay the 16% tax.
You basically just negotiate the terms and conditions with the school and forget about what the law says. One major school here in Warsaw is insisting that teachers pay for their own work permits. Polish law says that employers must pay for work permits but if you insist on that law being observed you won't get any work at that school. Other schools have hit on the great plan of applying for the permission to employ a foreigner, using that to get a 90 day business visa for the teacher (which the teacher pays for) and then not bothering to get the full work permit or resident's permit, they just tell the teacher that all the paperwork is in order! There are still honest schools but I'm hearing more horror stories this year than I have for quite a while.
Things here are a bit grimmer than they have been for a few years. Hopefully that will change when schools realise that they can make money by going for high volume and low margin but fair too many of them are still insisting on high margin ("Well we made that much margin a couple of years ago") and so getting low volume. There is lots of work in Warsaw right now but only if you want to work 6 or 8 hours a week at a school. A big crunch is coming to the industry here (and not a moment too soon! ) |
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Mr. Rochester
Joined: 15 Jul 2003
Posts: 6
Location: Somewhere in Europe
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| Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2003 6:06 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the detailed reply, Alex.
So far, the school hasn't tried anything blatant, but there are a few niggling things that I've been worried about. It seems like the school is living up to their promises, but since I've only been here for about six weeks, only time will tell. |
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