Court punishment Poland - work for punishment instead of jail

Hi. When you choose to work for punishment instead of jail, (when In Poland) do you have the option to stop if the weather is bad or if you need to do paid work? How lenient are the court

I don't think the weather would make any difference. If the court judgement was for a debt which you can't pay and you take up paid work, then you would have to start paying off the debt. Polish courts are not known for their lenience btw.

Thanks Atch. I'm confused about my partner who is in Poland now supposedly doing hours but still hasn't completed due to weather and some guy not signing his hours off. I'm beginning to think he has in fact completed it but doesn't want to return to me 🤷‍♀️

The weather here has been pretty normal, no 'weather events', in fact October has been mostly warm, dry and sunny. The guy not signing his hours off could be true but it shouldn't delay him for very long, a few days maybe.

Well there have been more complaints about this guy... apparently he does it all the time. My partner did 3 weeks but would only agree to 5 days. After that my partner did his back in, then had to do paid work to pay the bills, and hasn't been back since. I'm going to Poland as often as I can but according to my understanding and gut feeling something isn't quite right here....

Well,you only have your partner's word for that. Anyway if your partner didnt get his hours signed off week by week and waited until he'd done three weeks, that would make him as daft as a brush - and there are very few Polish guys who fall into that category.

If he's working off his child maintenance debt, it would be far easier/more straightforward if he just agreed to pay something each month especially if he's capable of doing paid work.

He is paying each month. We haven't faultered in that. This punishment is because we missed a court date which we didn't even know about because he lives in England with me and they wrote to him at his mothers address and she didn't open it or tell us there was even a letter!

Tilly, I'm afraid life is quite harsh in Poland and can be very unfair by British standards. In Poland, all 'official' letters are delivered by registered post and if somebody signs for it, even if they're not the addressee, it will be deemed to have been delivered and the authorities won't care whether you got the letter or not. They also refuse to send letters to overseas addresses. They will send a letter to your last registered address in Poland even if they know you don't live there anymore.


That's not untypical of many Polish families.

Yes exactly but as 'mother' didn't tell us we couldn't do anything. Her excuse was she was scared he would go to jail. We were lucky the judge aloud him to come home with me before doing the community service. Is that what it's called? Are you polish?

No, I'm Irish but I live in Poland. It's improved a lot since they joined the EU but it still has a long way to go.

You're legally obliged to deregister, so if he didn't do it, more fool him.

Really? I haven't thought life is especially harsh in Poland for over 10 years (maybe longer)


British people who get involved in Poland without learning the language properly or how things work are likely to think that, those that integrate are likely to float along from one disaster to the next until they give up and leave (I've seen the process).

I'm not sure if British standards are especially fairer overall (and would generally be a disaster applied directly in Poland).

Not at all.
You are judging it as an outsider.
For Poles it is not harsh at all.

should be "those
that do not integrate (for whatever reason)"

I disagree with that - outside the main cities life is still very hand to mouth for many Poles, and it is not easy to bring up a family on say 4000 zloty netto for two people working, though emigration has reduced there are still many willing to swap that for cleaning hotel rooms or picking fruit

What about Americans who "get involved in Poland etc etc..."
What a ridiculous statement.

Same story, if they learn the language and how things work and get rid of the lingering desire to turn Poland into a copy of their home country they do fine. If they don't then they bumble along confused and angry until they get fed up and leave.

IME Americans have been generally a bit better at integrating themselves into Polish society than Brits... (say a standard deviation or so).


This is true of many countries in Europe and hardly anything special or unique to Poland.... if anything the rest of Europe is converging down to Polish levels (without any of the traditional protections that have existed and still exist in Poland).

theguardian.com/world/2019/may/15/cash-credits-and-crisis-life-in-the-new-european-precariat

Probably you don`t count 500+. So, 4000 net for only two people outside a big city is not a bad amount. There are people who have much less.

The article is pretty appalling. It seems that the times when life was harsh in Poland and was easy in the so-called "rotten" West are gone now [please, read that article carefully, Ms. Atch!]. Reading about the situation of that mum in France has been really depressing. And that guy in Italy says one important thing: bureaucracy and certifications that overwhelm us with work. Never in my life have I experienced the level of buraucracy as we are having in Poland right now and it is still growing! Needles to say that the overwhelming part of is being imported to Poland from the "rotten" West through the regulations of the European Union. In the UK, an interesting case of a woman whose faith in the welfare state had been total but collapsed completely overnight.

And last, but not least, the article points out to the growing inequality in Europe: the average income of the richest 1% of Europeans has grown twice as fast as that of the bottom 50%.

Add that 1000 then - that means 5000, 166 zloty a day for four people. How much do you think is left after rent, food, heating, medicine, schoolbooks and transport ? Yes you can survive but not much fun

Americans are a bit more enthusiastic in general, which might explain it. I know one American guy who is hopeless with Polish, but he embraces everything. Four hour queue in a government office? Nevermind, he'll just find someone to chat to for those four hours.

What I find shocking are those Brits in rural areas who haven't integrated at all. I've seen one Facebook discussion only a few days ago, and some guy was proud of having been here for 15 years in a small town without speaking the language. Can you imagine? He can't even read the language, let alone communicate in it.

I think it's more the American preference for broad and shallow social networks over the general European preference for narrow and deep social contacts. Brits are, I think, okay with only knowing a few people (and knowing them pretty well) while Americans like to know as many people as possible but aren't big on deeper connections with them.

You can only build and maintain a large social network in Poland in Polish so Americans feel more internal pressure to use whatever Polish they can muster.

I'll add that it's only Brits who seem.... proud (for lack of a better word) of living for years in Poland and not knowing any Polish... I can't imagine that.

Interesting observation.


That`s a sort of tribute paid to all Poles who make up for those Brits` language deficiencies with their English.

More like a tribute to the politeness of the Poles in the face of incredible rudeness...

I don`t think Poles consider it a rudeness. Some individuals are not able to acquire a foreign language despite their and their teachers` efforts, and Poles know it from their own experience.

If such a person is 'proud' of it, for some F up reason. Ofcurse it is considered a rudeness.
On the other hand if a person is unable to use simple, grammatically correct sentences even after living in the country for more than a decade, such a person is considered a lazy moron, Pronunciation is not a big deal as long as a person can be understood.

Assuming they exhibit this pride in front of natives, yes, it is rudeness. But most Brits don`t do such things, they are too well mannered. British soccer fans excluded. :):)

Why not generalise...?

That's what I always say, failure to learn the local language by long term residents always comes down to some combination of stupidity and/or laziness. There is no such thing as people who just don't have a 'knack' for learning languages, there are those who do the work.... and those who don't.

You must have never been a teacher, then. Believe me, there are such individuals. :):)