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steviok85
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 87
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 Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 6:11 am Post subject: Holiday leave |
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I guess that language schools can find a way round things, but, for various reasons, I want to finish my contract a couple of days earlier and my Boss is being a bit of a pain about it. Am I entitled to 20 days holiday? I have read this article (link below) and wonder where the grey areas are. To my knowledge, the only holiday I have had were the public holidays .. Easter, May 3 etc.
http://www.rwgr.pl/files/news/56.pdf |
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maniak
Joined: 06 Feb 2008
Posts: 194
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| Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 9:55 am Post subject: |
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| Only if you have an umowa o pracy, which Im sure you dont. You probably have to sign a contract every month titled umowa o dzielo, am I right? |
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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 12:47 am Post subject: |
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Every month? An umowa o dzieło can cover the whole academic year...
But yeah very few rights go with an umowa o dzieło. You're basically like a builder who has been told to build a house between x and x dates (though in this case the house is your students knowledge of English) and your pay supposedly contains loading to make up for the fact that there's no paid leave - annual, sick or otherwise. A lot of the Polish teachers of English work a bit or a lot on the side in regular schools which is a big pay cut but they can get various types of leave, ZUS and other benefits which an umowa o pracy entails.
So basically native speakers are exploited migrant workers  |
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Master Shake
Joined: 03 Nov 2006
Posts: 1202
Location: Colorado, USA
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 8:23 am Post subject: |
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| hrvatski wrote: |
Every month? An umowa o dzieło can cover the whole academic year...
But yeah very few rights go with an umowa o dzieło. You're basically like a builder who has been told to build a house between x and x dates (though in this case the house is your students knowledge of English) and your pay supposedly contains loading to make up for the fact that there's no paid leave - annual, sick or otherwise. A lot of the Polish teachers of English work a bit or a lot on the side in regular schools which is a big pay cut but they can get various types of leave, ZUS and other benefits which an umowa o pracy entails.
So basically native speakers are exploited migrant workers |
Sad but true. |
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sparks
Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 632
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 12:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Seeing as how the contract that you signed isn't worth the paper it's written on (just a fact in our field, in our part of the world) you have two choices: Just leave when you want ( you probably shouldn't expect your last months pay then) or stick it out and hope that you receive your last months pay. Feel no obligation or sense of duty towards your boss. He or she is also probably not worth the room they take up, a substitute can always be found. Your students will most likely be understanding if you tell them you have to leave because of this or that reason. It's only the school owners who try to be hard***es. |
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maniak
Joined: 06 Feb 2008
Posts: 194
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| Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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| hrvatski wrote: |
Every month? An umowa o dzieło can cover the whole academic year...
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A year? Sure it can cover an entire year but thats just silly... for the schools at least. A shorter contract means a shorter leash. I dont know of any schools that sign an umowa o dzielo for a year, as it complicates paying salary/taxes, especially if the person leaves before the contract expires.
Its all dodgy in the end. I know many teachers who work under umowa o dzielo not as teachers but as "consultants to teaching programs" or some shit as it provides better tax breaks for schools. Another issue is the nature of our work, ie, coming to a certain place, regularly, at certain times, and doing a specific task, which all fall under the definition of an umowa o pracy. But thats peanuts, as sparks said, your contract aint worth a damn.
If you feel you are being mistreated or shammed then a nice letter to the local urzad skarbowy and panstwowy inspektorat pracy wont do anything for you, but make it hot for them. |
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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270
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| Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 6:47 am Post subject: |
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| maniak wrote: |
| A year? Sure it can cover an entire year but thats just silly... for the schools at least. A shorter contract means a shorter leash. I dont know of any schools that sign an umowa o dzielo for a year, as it complicates paying salary/taxes, especially if the person leaves before the contract expires. |
My school always signed umowy o dzieło for a year with its teachers and had some pretty stiff conditions for anyone who broke contract (good luck enforcing that though). The idea was to have a teacher locked down for the whole year so they'd feel less able to skip off half-way through and break the continuity with the students, which was a situation to be avoided like the plague cause students complain. Not sure about the taxes etc. but I got on well with the boss and he seemed comfortable with it, he had a good accountant. |
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Master Shake
Joined: 03 Nov 2006
Posts: 1202
Location: Colorado, USA
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| Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 11:21 am Post subject: |
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| hrvatski wrote: |
| Every month? An umowa o dzieło can cover the whole academic year... |
All the umowa o dzieło's I've been on were for a semester or academic year. I was even on one...and I guess I still am...which was 'ongoing' with no fixed end date.
As others have written, I wouldn't worry too much about legal repercussions from breaking one. But I wouldn't expect to get paid or use that reference again either! |
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delphian-domine
Joined: 11 Mar 2011
Posts: 674
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| Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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| sparks wrote: |
| Seeing as how the contract that you signed isn't worth the paper it's written on (just a fact in our field, in our part of the world) you have two choices: Just leave when you want ( you probably shouldn't expect your last months pay then) or stick it out and hope that you receive your last months pay. |
Actually, as far as I understand it - one beauty of the umowa o dzielo contract is that even if you walk out halfway through, the way that most of them are structured means that the school has to pay regardless of what you do. It depends on the exact circumstances - but because most of them are operating very much on the edge of the law with respect to the contract, they're not going to risk going to court and having their contract torn apart.
One thing that's worth bearing in mind in Poland is that the vast majority of schools (except the real big boys) will crumble within seconds of receiving any sort of formal legal threat. |
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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 8:06 am Post subject: |
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| delphian-domine wrote: |
| Actually, as far as I understand it - one beauty of the umowa o dzielo contract is that even if you walk out halfway through, the way that most of them are structured means that the school has to pay regardless of what you do. |
Yeah I'm not sure about that but you're welcome to give it a go |
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sparks
Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 632
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 9:39 am Post subject: |
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| The reason that you have nothing to fear from breaking a contract with a school is the same reason why the school has nothing to fear from breaking a contract with you--legal procedures in Poland are long and costly. It wouldn't be worth the effort to take them to court for your piddling last month's salary. |
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dynow
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 2:09 am Post subject: |
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sparks wrote:
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| It wouldn't be worth the effort to take them to court for your piddling last month's salary. |
which is why having the least amount of anchors holding you down to one single school in poland the better, most especially a work visa. going the work visa route in poland with an ESL school is just suicide. total dependency on people. |
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delphian-domine
Joined: 11 Mar 2011
Posts: 674
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| Posted: Tue May 17, 2011 11:21 am Post subject: |
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| dynow wrote: |
| which is why having the least amount of anchors holding you down to one single school in poland the better, most especially a work visa. going the work visa route in poland with an ESL school is just suicide. total dependency on people. |
It's not worth it at all.
About the only time it would be sensible would be if it's a job with a public institution, or possibly a respectable private university (okay, we all know there's no such thing, but some are better than others). |
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lundjstuart
Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 211
Location: Warsaw, Poland
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