News / Poland's indecent junk capitalism? [53]


It was explained to me once by a PO member and employer that he would like to see the labour code reformed so that it offers less protection to employees (some provisions are beyond ridiculous, especially when it comes to trade union rights) - but in return, employers would be obliged to use umowa o prace for any fully directed work. It makes sense, I think. The problem is that the trade unions will scream and howl as soon as any reform to the kodeks pracy is discussed - so you end up with the situation that umowa zlecenie / umowa o dzieło are used because no-one wants to work together for a common goal.


It's a huge question, to be honest. I know one employer (who is a great guy, and very fair to his employees, including giving them extra days off over the "long weekends" so they don't have to use their holidays) who is very open about it - he said that the abuse by pregnant women and young mothers is so huge that he simply won't hire any women between 25-40 as a result. Part of the problem is certainly the macho role played by Polish men - "My job is more important than your job and so you need to stay at home when the kid is sick" - which to me is complete ********.

Certainly, one obligation should be for the male to either take 6 months paternity leave or it's completely lost - the current situation with women getting almost 2 years as a result of abusing sick leave and then a year of maternity leave is causing immense problems for young women in Poland.

News / Poland's indecent junk capitalism? [53]


As usual with them, they've pledged to abolish them. But we all know that they won't, for the simple reason that anyone with half a brain knows that many jobs would vanish overnight if they did - which would hurt their electorate badly.

Having said that, some changes are definitely happening. Umowa o dzieło is now very, very dangerous to use if it's not a genuine "dzieło" - the tax office has gone after many language schools for using it recently. Umowa zlecenia contracts are also starting to be scrutinised, particularly if it's in an area where the work is completely directed.

The problem is that for the employer, the burden of giving umowa o prace is just massive. The social protections provided by umowa o prace are huge - one lawyer friend estimated that in his experience, employers only win around 10% of disputes if umowa o prace is involved. Some of the provisions are staggering - imagine that someone is entitled to 60 days a year to care for a sick child? The system is just far too easy to abuse.

The solution (in my view) is to allow small businesses (say, under 50 employees) to grant a special kind of contract that offers restricted labour rights while still offering all the benefits in terms of health insurance, pension, etc etc. That kind of contract would allow small busineses to give people job security without them having to worry that Agnieszka the secretary is going to go off for 2 years on maternity/sick leave. As it stands, the current situation causes incredible discrimination towards women :(

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]


Honestly, Polonius, he's not the kind of Catholic we want here. That stuff about healing (I'm open minded about Lourdes, Fatima, etc - so I'm not against the idea) is just surreal, but the stuff about raising people from the dead is utterly inexcusable. I'm not sure if he's saying this stuff in Poland too, but he seems to be your typical Pentecostal type dressed up as a Catholic. To me, he's the kind of person that can do much more harm than good - people will use him as an excuse to ridiculous and mock Catholicism, even though he's very much on the fringe.

Lednica is a much better event to discuss - by all accounts, even by non-Catholics, it's a wonderful event that steers clear of anything that might be dubious. And yes, it is remarkable that a clearly religious event in Europe can attract the regular numbers that Lednica does.

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]


Polonius, have you got any idea what you're going on about? The guy claims to be a faith healer, he claims to have brought back to life more people than Jesus... come on :/


But it's not a good thing! The guy is very much on the fringe of the RCC - even the Church itself seems to be rather divided. If you mentioned the rather good Lednica, we wouldn't have an argument - but you're instead choosing to highlight a charlatan of the worst kind.

But anyway, I'll humour you.

rt.com/news/197296-catalonia-independence-protest-elections - 110,000 on the streets for Catalan independence

ucb.co.uk/content/united-prayer-event-calls-christians-wembley - 65-70000 Christians at Wembley Stadium, London

pinknews.co.uk/2006/06/30/gay-community-awaiting-europride - half a million at London Europride

More?

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


And if someone slaps the gun right out of your hand, what then?

Anyone in any way proficient in martial arts or with military training would know that it only takes around 5 degrees of movement of the gun to cause you to miss. You won't have a second chance.

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

Could Polonius perhaps explain his support for this guy?

But who the hell is he anyway? Just another charlatan that's turned up in Poland and managed (through slick PR) to convince people to give him 2 million złoty for a one day event?

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]


From what I've read, he's exactly the kind of guy that most normal Catholics are warned to not listen to. Even Fronda.pl seems to be rather confused about him.

There was a lot of advertising - I stumbled across it randomly, and it seems as if it's been promoted as a kind of Lednica event.

From what I can see, he's like a Catholic Joel Osteen. Ugh.

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]


Isn't this the guy who claims that he brought people back to life, among other very dubious things?

Not sure why you'd promote him on here as being a good example.

Hahaha. 40,000 turned up to see this guy, while 60,000 turned up to see some enactment of the Battle of Grunwald. :D

Does that mean that more people are interested in history than Catholicism?

Law / The right to own guns: would you support such legislation in Poland? [2237]


Most of the Guns n God brigade wouldn't have the slightest clue about tactics or discipline. They're far too individualistic - and they would be nothing but good old cannon fodder for even a part time army.

In Poland, what do people need to carry guns for? You can buy stun guns in some places (are those really dodgy shops under Warszawa Centralna still there?) as well as perfectly legal pepper spray. You can even buy handguns that shoot gas rather than bullets - really, why does anyone need bullets if they want to harm someone?

History / Do Polish people in general dislike Russia or Germany more? [369]


I very much doubt that you are German for the simple reason that any German would know that Germany didn't exist until 1871. You could argue that it possibly started in 1815, but as far as I know, modern Germany takes 1871 as being the start of the modern German nation.

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

What you can do is simply conduct all discussions in front of their car. It'll be recorded on video and on microphone, so if you make a complaint - it's ball-chopping time. The police are quite terrified in Poland of being accused of corruption, and the anti-corruption chaps are always quite keen to get involved in these kinds of situations.

For what it's worth, I've never had any issues with my PO plates and police - it even worked to my advantage when pleading stupidity in the Czech Republic as to why I didn't understand them :D

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]


Opened a business recently, have we?

The "one window" is alive and working very well indeed. These days, you can even do everything online - all you have to do is turn up at the office, give them a code, sign one document and voila - your business is open and ready.


No, you can't. If they make such a threat - take their badge number and report them. They can only fine you 50zl per missing document - and all they can do is make you park the car until the documents are produced. They certainly can't impound the car for merely not having documents.


There is one purpose - because of the system of insurance, anyone can drive a car provided they have a licence, the registration document and the insurance document. It would be a nightmare if anyone could drive a car and could claim that they've got permission but the documents are at home. It is weird for us, but I've never really been bothered by it - everything fits into my wallet nicely anyway.


It's coming bit by bit.

Having said that, we all know that PiS would immediately employ endless civil servants to make sure that everyone feels guilty. That tax office where you previously had a decent relationship? Well, Paweł, son of the local PiS leader now has the job - and he knows that you're guilty.

Work / Is it difficult to make a living playing Soccer (football) in Poland? [54]

I'll be around from Thursday till Sunday only, it's summer holidays for me, so I'm not here at all really :(

His number (at least, the one I used to have for him - if his wife answers, just ask for him) - 502 362 818

(mods - it's not personal data, it's his business number that's published online)

Work / Is it difficult to make a living playing Soccer (football) in Poland? [54]

Ah, man, I'm not here then. But I'll send you the contact details to a Nigerian-Polish football agent based in Poznań. I'm sure he'll be willing to chat with you :)

linkedin.com/in/justino13

Contact him, he's a licenced Nigerian (but qualified and registered in Poland) FIFA football agent. I'm sure he'll be able to sort out a trial for you with a team or two :)

Work / Is it difficult to make a living playing Soccer (football) in Poland? [54]

One thing - I don't know if it's still current, but there was some provision to grant citizenship after 3 years to non-EU players.

Work / Is it difficult to make a living playing Soccer (football) in Poland? [54]

Which city are you in? I can help you if you're in Poznań.

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]


The problem is that the Church itself seems to be hell bent on destroying itself. Some of their actions are just crazy - for instance, a building was returned to them by the court. In the building was a school that had been there for many years - and immediately, the Curia demanded a huge amount of money in rent. It was just pure greed - and utter bad will on their part. With these sort of actions, they have no hope in the future.

History / Lech Walesa - Happy Birthday! [21]


Yes, but an AK veteran that went on to study abroad AND managed to get his children on TV is quite remarkable, don't you think?

News / There is no Poland without the Church! [178]

Well done Kaczyński, you're just reminding all those centrist voters that your politics are entirely based around the directives of the Church.

Works for me.

History / Lech Walesa - Happy Birthday! [21]

Yes yes. Of course. He just so happened to be able to continue his studies post-war as well, despite being an AK veteran. And then he even managed to work on the American Embassy. Quite remarkable for an AK veteran, don't you think?

History / Lech Walesa - Happy Birthday! [21]


Care to explain how Lech Wałęsa was corrupt?


Well, duh. He might have been the inspiration to the masses, but there were a lot of great men and women behind him.


What's new? Solidarność was first and foremost a trade union.


That's because the Gdansk Shipyard workers were concerned about themselves, not others. Same story all over Poland, particularly with miners.


Pienkowska was a remarkable woman.


Yawn. You might want to look at more obvious cases, such as the curious case of an ex-AK man who just so happened to be given a very large and comfortable apartment in Zoliborz.

News / Poland Sports News [1079]

Ice Speedway is particularly mental and worth watching - they even held it on a lake one year in Poznań, which must clearly be the definition of "are you off your head?".

Not quite in Poland, but Ski Flying in Harrahov is worth watching live. There's something insane about jumping the length of two football fields on snow.

The Tour de Pologne will be soon, and Stage 1 will be in Warsaw - tourdepologne.pl/en/stage1/ - although the route isn't very inspiring.

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

Slightly different situation.

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

Probably because PO have never shown much appetite for public confrontation - it's always been a hallmark of PO to try and come to a consensus rather than facing down the unions.

I suspect that such a tactic would work very well when the workers realise that the management will inevitably take the shares and so they need to take their share. The Unions would howl, but a firm hand is needed at that point.

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

Exactly, and this is why I'd like to see the mines privatised and placed into their hands whether they like it or not. Of course, they'd howl and complain - but it would be very hard to argue with "...but we're GIVING you the company" in the eyes of the public. I'd personally like to see them justify why owning shares in their own future is a bad thing - especially given that they're hardly likely to admit that they'd screw it up within months.

A simple carrot and stick approach would be to make it clear that the shares will be given to those that agree. If they don't agree, then they don't receive shares - which would soon divide many miners, especially when it becomes obvious that individual miners could own a substantial amount of shares if they don't all agree.

I'm also sick and tired of hearing about how a few shot miners means that every miner in the country should be entitled to endless special benefits.

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]

I suppose everything else has failed, so there's not much to lose.

Although I still wish they would just clear the debts of the mines in question, give the shares to the workers (with a clause that workers must control at least 50%+1 of the shares) and sit back and laugh. We'd be rid of the problem within months ;)

News / Coal-Powered Poland Refuses to "Go Green". EU Ain't Happy. [304]


Maybe it's not so silly as it seems. The power companies in particular might not be too happy to subsidise the miners, and this move allows the government to put pressure on the mines indirectly - which is important given the vast amount of fools in Poland that agree with special privileges for miners.

News / Czechs most liked by Poles! [35]

Czechs are colder, that much is true. The culture is much, much more Germanic, which is why they started 1990 way ahead of Poland.

As for the language, it's just because of one thing - everything in Czech sounds like it's a diminutive to Polish speakers. The actual languages are pretty much identical when it comes to complexity :)

But in every day, I've never noticed any hostility to Poles. They can be quite standoffish (particularly in Prague), but it seems to apply to everyone equally, not just Poles. Poles are prone to taking everything personally though, and the Czech coldness might be perceived as a personal insult. For what it's worth, after 2 (or 3, depending on your viewpoint) invasions within 50 years in the 20th century, I wouldn't blame the Czechs for disliking Poles :D

As for language, it's easy to get by in Ostrava, Liberec and so on. It's more difficult in the south of the country, though.

Study / British School of Warsaw in Wilanow [73]


I could share a story or two about international nurseries and very dodgy contracts too

As for this school that's opened, who is behind it?

Law / How do I verify a Polish company's existence? [240]

Looks legit enough, the company is registered in the self employment database.

I'm in Poznań, so if you want something done in person, I could help :)