Hi,
Can anyone explain what kind of contract is this?
Or, where could i find some more info - in English?
Thanks in advance!
Can anyone explain what kind of contract is this?
Or, where could i find some more info - in English?
Thanks in advance!
umowa o dzielo z prawami autorskimi
It's more or less (art)work contract with copyrights.
there are basically 3 types of job contracts in Poland:
1/ umowa o pracę
the standard type in most jobs, full ZUS (Social Insurance) and taxes (students and people who already retired pay lower insurance, and people with two jobs pay full ZUS from the first job and lower insurance from the second one).
2/ umowa zlecenie (zlecenia) - work order, a contract where someone (a company or a person) executes some work for another entity, used by companies instead of standard job contracts mostly to reduce the social insurance costs (which are high in Poland).
3/ umowa o dzieło - (art)work contract, someone orders a ready work from you - it can be a sculpture, a poem, a book, a painting, a photography (or a series of those works), also a translation of some texts into another language. It's not only about art, some other objects/works can be included here, it all depends on the creativity of lawyers who know how to use the existing laws to reduce company's costs.
The main advantage of umowa o dzieło is that the company pays a fixed, agreed price and 9.5% tax, nothing more (the tax is 19%, but half of contract price is regarded as your "costs of receiving an income", so exempted from taxes, you only pay higher taxes than 19% in case you exceed 43.405 PLN of income in 2007, which in reality means 86.810 PLN in case of umowa o dzieło), no social insurance, if you want to have a health insurance (and also pay towards your pension) in Poland, you have to register in ZUS and pay from your own pocket (health insurance is 280 PLN as far as I know, I'm not sure about the pension fund).
The difference between umowa zlecenie and umowa o dzieło is that zlecenie is about execution of some works, while umowa o dzieło is about the final result of your work.
Example (please forgive me non-realistic figures, it's just an example)
Let's say an employer (a small newspaper) has a monthly budget of 10,000 PLN for photos.
They can employ a full time photographer and pay him about 5,900 PLN (and the remaining 4,100 PLN goes to ZUS, social insurance, and Urząd Skarbowy), after 7 months you'll be over 44,000 PLN of income, and you will be paying higher tax (30% instead of 19%), so you'll get only about 5,100 PLN in hand (although, according to a income/tax calculator I'm using, in November and December you'd get 5,700 PLN in hand).
With umowa o dzieło, you'd be getting 120,000 PLN a year, 60,000 PLN would be exempted from taxes, 44,400 would be taxed at 19% and 15,600 PLN would be taxed at 30%. So the total tax would be 13,116 PLN a year, leaving you with 106,884 PLN in your pocket (8,907 PLN a month on average). You'd gain 3,000 PLN/month more, so even paying a health insurance and a pension plan from your own pocket (let's say a total of 1,500 PLN a month), you'd be better off.
there are basically 3 types of job contracts in Poland:
1/ umowa o pracę
the standard type in most jobs, full ZUS (Social Insurance) and taxes (students and people who already retired pay lower insurance, and people with two jobs pay full ZUS from the first job and lower insurance from the second one).
2/ umowa zlecenie (zlecenia) - work order, a contract where someone (a company or a person) executes some work for another entity, used by companies instead of standard job contracts mostly to reduce the social insurance costs (which are high in Poland).
3/ umowa o dzieło - (art)work contract, someone orders a ready work from you - it can be a sculpture, a poem, a book, a painting, a photography (or a series of those works), also a translation of some texts into another language. It's not only about art, some other objects/works can be included here, it all depends on the creativity of lawyers who know how to use the existing laws to reduce company's costs.
The main advantage of umowa o dzieło is that the company pays a fixed, agreed price and 9.5% tax, nothing more (the tax is 19%, but half of contract price is regarded as your "costs of receiving an income", so exempted from taxes, you only pay higher taxes than 19% in case you exceed 43.405 PLN of income in 2007, which in reality means 86.810 PLN in case of umowa o dzieło), no social insurance, if you want to have a health insurance (and also pay towards your pension) in Poland, you have to register in ZUS and pay from your own pocket (health insurance is 280 PLN as far as I know, I'm not sure about the pension fund).
The difference between umowa zlecenie and umowa o dzieło is that zlecenie is about execution of some works, while umowa o dzieło is about the final result of your work.
Example (please forgive me non-realistic figures, it's just an example)
Let's say an employer (a small newspaper) has a monthly budget of 10,000 PLN for photos.
They can employ a full time photographer and pay him about 5,900 PLN (and the remaining 4,100 PLN goes to ZUS, social insurance, and Urząd Skarbowy), after 7 months you'll be over 44,000 PLN of income, and you will be paying higher tax (30% instead of 19%), so you'll get only about 5,100 PLN in hand (although, according to a income/tax calculator I'm using, in November and December you'd get 5,700 PLN in hand).
With umowa o dzieło, you'd be getting 120,000 PLN a year, 60,000 PLN would be exempted from taxes, 44,400 would be taxed at 19% and 15,600 PLN would be taxed at 30%. So the total tax would be 13,116 PLN a year, leaving you with 106,884 PLN in your pocket (8,907 PLN a month on average). You'd gain 3,000 PLN/month more, so even paying a health insurance and a pension plan from your own pocket (let's say a total of 1,500 PLN a month), you'd be better off.
An even bigger thing to consider in this is who holds the copyrights. Often, this is not a simple ability, or inability to obtain continued profits from work, but sometimes, if new ways of doing things are discovered (think patents) during the creation of the final result the customer may become the owner of those too, and the contractor cannot use those methods for any subsequent contracts without paying royalty to the former client.
Things can get pretty complex and hairy, so it's always best to get in touch with a lawyer to make sure you understand what you are signing, and what the future ramifications are.
Things can get pretty complex and hairy, so it's always best to get in touch with a lawyer to make sure you understand what you are signing, and what the future ramifications are.
Hi,
I'm on the nasty o dzielo and my school just told me that they will not honour the guaranteed mininum 60 hours & therefore the guaranteed minimum payment this month. In effect I have a forced holiday and the contract is to be ignored.
Therefore, as I'm leaving anyway for a shiney new job, can anybody tell me what minimum notice of termination I must give on this contract? And if I leave now, can they withold payment from the previous month that they just authorised? Saying that, even if they legally cannot, I know this school will try their best to do so.
Once this is over, I will be posting a full report of my experiences with this school on the approrpriate teacher forums and will also post my professional opinions about them on here for prospective students.
Tony
I'm on the nasty o dzielo and my school just told me that they will not honour the guaranteed mininum 60 hours & therefore the guaranteed minimum payment this month. In effect I have a forced holiday and the contract is to be ignored.
Therefore, as I'm leaving anyway for a shiney new job, can anybody tell me what minimum notice of termination I must give on this contract? And if I leave now, can they withold payment from the previous month that they just authorised? Saying that, even if they legally cannot, I know this school will try their best to do so.
Once this is over, I will be posting a full report of my experiences with this school on the approrpriate teacher forums and will also post my professional opinions about them on here for prospective students.
Tony
delphiandomine 86 | 17823
2 Dec 2008 / #5
I'd be inclined to believe that seeing as they've willingly broken the contract, there's little to nothing they can actually do about you leaving. However, I'd make sure you were paid up until the point where you quit - they more than likely would be quick to withhold payment if you leave. If you're paid awkwardly, for instance, in a month in arearrs - then (if I recall rightly, they were very insistent about you not showing the contract to the tax office) start twisting their arms - Polish or non-Polish, it won't take much words to explain to the tax office exactly what they're upto with their contracts.
Having said this, perhaps the most sensible thing to do would be to 'get ill' this month - so you don't have to work for them, you'll still get paid by them as they'll be none the wiser, and you can then walk out once all the money has been paid. You could even get away with working for the new job in the meantime - the chances of them finding out are pretty minimal.
I look forward to reading about your experiences :)
Having said this, perhaps the most sensible thing to do would be to 'get ill' this month - so you don't have to work for them, you'll still get paid by them as they'll be none the wiser, and you can then walk out once all the money has been paid. You could even get away with working for the new job in the meantime - the chances of them finding out are pretty minimal.
I look forward to reading about your experiences :)
Hi delphiandomine,
I actually did something a little unusual for me, I stood up to the manager, ok, by email and said that as my contract for for a guaranteed amount then I require them to pay this amount and if this is not possible then I will seek some alternative income with immediate effect. Back came an email giving me the full amount saying "but you'll have to work the full amount of hours", er, well yeah, that's obvious!
but, I have a feeling she might have taken hours off the other teachers to do this and these teachers are paid less than native speakers so I'm not willing to do that to my friends. So, maybe stupidly, I've mailed back saying that if she took these hours off my friends - give them back! I'll find another way to make up the money rather than take it off my friends.
We'll see what happens.
In the meantime, I've read the main post in this thread and I'll be speaking to my new boss, who has also become a good friend, to decide which is the better contract allround. I'm thinking zlacenie is worth a try, provided I have some written agreement about paid holidays in there. Hours won't matter, I'll consider myself 'salaried' and work the hours required to meet the needs of the business, which so far looks to include European travel! 3 days in Germany already booked. Obviously, this isn't teaching, I'm leaving that snake pit behind to return to IT. I'll teach part time and for friends only - but only because I love teaching!!
thanks again
T
I actually did something a little unusual for me, I stood up to the manager, ok, by email and said that as my contract for for a guaranteed amount then I require them to pay this amount and if this is not possible then I will seek some alternative income with immediate effect. Back came an email giving me the full amount saying "but you'll have to work the full amount of hours", er, well yeah, that's obvious!
but, I have a feeling she might have taken hours off the other teachers to do this and these teachers are paid less than native speakers so I'm not willing to do that to my friends. So, maybe stupidly, I've mailed back saying that if she took these hours off my friends - give them back! I'll find another way to make up the money rather than take it off my friends.
We'll see what happens.
In the meantime, I've read the main post in this thread and I'll be speaking to my new boss, who has also become a good friend, to decide which is the better contract allround. I'm thinking zlacenie is worth a try, provided I have some written agreement about paid holidays in there. Hours won't matter, I'll consider myself 'salaried' and work the hours required to meet the needs of the business, which so far looks to include European travel! 3 days in Germany already booked. Obviously, this isn't teaching, I'm leaving that snake pit behind to return to IT. I'll teach part time and for friends only - but only because I love teaching!!
thanks again
T
tk, how long have you been
how long have you been here? I always say that living in Poland is wonderful assertiveness training for wimpy English speakers, you either learn to stand up for yourself or you wind up with footprints on your forehead.
I've often heard of private school owners who try to guilt trip their teachers (putting on the "how could you?! i thought we were friends!" face when the teacher does something vulgar like ask to be paid. Pay no attention to it.
I actually did something a little unusual for me, I stood up to the manager
how long have you been here? I always say that living in Poland is wonderful assertiveness training for wimpy English speakers, you either learn to stand up for yourself or you wind up with footprints on your forehead.
I've often heard of private school owners who try to guilt trip their teachers (putting on the "how could you?! i thought we were friends!" face when the teacher does something vulgar like ask to be paid. Pay no attention to it.
I've been in Poland 4.5 months, 2 of which in Gdansk. You are certainly right, this is beginners assertiveness training. I was always the sensitve kind, just roll over and play dead to keep everybody happy and avoid conflicts, but oh boy and I changing! The ex doesn't know what's hit her, I've suddenly gone from Mr nice guy to having the legal advice and assistance to evict her! :)
Also, the job offers have been flooding in this week so I feel a little safer if standing up to a manager goes pear shaped. Thankfully, in my new job in Tczew, the boss is more like a friend and appreciates the straight talk. My goodness, does this mean I can mix honesty and business?
Also, the job offers have been flooding in this week so I feel a little safer if standing up to a manager goes pear shaped. Thankfully, in my new job in Tczew, the boss is more like a friend and appreciates the straight talk. My goodness, does this mean I can mix honesty and business?
Just try to avoid "umowa o dzieło", because I think it's "half legal" (to not say worse) in the case of teaching, it's just a managers' way to pay less taxes (especially no ZUS) and more to the teacher.
If you can't [don't want to] sign a permanent work contract (umowa o pracę), usually preceded by a 3-months trial period, get at least "umowa zlecenie" in your next job.
If you can't [don't want to] sign a permanent work contract (umowa o pracę), usually preceded by a 3-months trial period, get at least "umowa zlecenie" in your next job.
My next job is with a localIT company starting on Jan 1st (ish). This guy has also become a friend so I know he wont take me for a ride. OR maybe I'm being naive once again. I'm going to suggest something that works well for both of us. Maybe the zlecenie.
thanks again
Tony
thanks again
Tony