Fraudulent job situation Poland

Me along with nearly 70 plus other Indians (mostly students) joined in Ubereats as delivery riders in Warsaw in February this year. In the beginning we were given a contract with a salary of 2500 zl for a person who work 5 days per week (12 hrs a day), 3000 for those who work 6 days per week and so on.

When we start our work, they were recruiting so many people again and were eliminating those who have completed less than 12 days for reasons nothing or something related to delivery. It was because in the contract it was written you won't get paid if you work less than 12 days. My account was inactivate on the eleventh day night.

As the things gone wrong like this many complained about this to the office. And then they furnished another contract, in which they made a u-turn in their salary conditions, mentioning further cuts like we will get only 30% of our salary if work earn between 1000 zl -2000zl and 40% for income between 2001 -3000 and like that.

When we requested for salary for February they told us to wait till 10th March. On this day (March 10) they gave salary to some guys only and was nowhere what everybody expected. Everybody stopped working and reached the office. But they mentioned they cannot do any more in this matter and do what we want.

We are thinking of what further action we can do to like this frauds:

Some have mentioned giving a formal complaint to the labour ministry, get help from some political parties, approach Human Rights groups, etc.

Please comment!

It is extremely unlikely that you will get anywhere.

Terrible behavior by Uber if what you say is true.

However why were you all signing up for 5 day weeks if you were students ? Surely that is a serious breach of your visa conditions.

You have no redress under labor law - you were not employees and you were probably not entitled to work.

You might have some redress under civil law if you can prove that Uber broke the contracts in bad faith after 11 days. You would need to find a lawyer to take the case and it would take at least 6 months to resolve.

This issue isn't unique to Poland, ubereats have been heavily criticised for doing it elsewhere.

Yes, it should be illegal and they should be prosecuted. No, it isn't currently illegal under the contract 'uber partners' sign and they won't be, since your contract with them wasn't a contract of employment.


And yes, ubereats are happy to take advantage of your situation and doubtless dob you in to the immigration authorities should you attempt to sue them. There's a reason their reputation is so poor, a clue to this should be the fact that the CEO of Uber's twitter avatar is the cover of a book by the disgusting Ayn Rand.

I think she died quite a while ago ?

In the early 80s as I remember and not a moment too soon. Unfortunately she still has her fans. Including the head of Uber.

And this sort of very sharp employment practice, the thing the OP is complaining about, is entirely in line with that bogus philosophy. Unfortunately, there's very little the OP can do, except spread the story far and wide. It deserves to be picked up by the media, as the ubereats scandal has been in several countries.

Contact PIP - warszawa.pip.gov.pl - they will help you every step of the way. If it's fraud on the scale as you allege, then PIP will destroy them and take them to court on your behalf.

In general, they're very sharp to this kind of abusive practice and willing to help.

@cms
Thanking you for your response...
Actually majority of us are students enrolled under various Polish colleges and institutes, who are also entitled to work. And not many of them were working more than 4-5 days. And we were informed the position is purely temporary basis and seasonal also (for a maximum 5 months). And in Europe, foreign students are normally thronged in to seasonal jobs either part time or full time as these jobs are available just for few months and can perform under the permitted duration of work hours on an yearly average basis. So what point of legal breach here?

I dunno - when I was a student, I did two shifts in waffle house, and I thought that was too much because it interfered with my studies. How are you can get a student Visa and then spent 60 hours per week cycling round Warsaw and still have time for your studies beats me. But assuming you have the right to work, then yes you can take it to the labour inspection because you are working well below the minimum wage.

I think the most hours you can work is 16 per week. If you have a contract that specifies 30 or 40, then the employer can go to the authorities (whether he has paid you or not) and say that you have been working full time. You will then have your student visa revoked and will be sent back home. Your employer knows this- and that is whey there is absolutely nothing you can do, unless you want to get yourself into trouble.

The problem here is that he was never employed by ubereats - he was a 'partner' as they call it, and self employed.


Sadly this is true.

If your studies are even 1/2 successful that 'j'ob' will be beneath you. Time to hit the books!

I don't think there's any limit in Poland, especially as they're employed through civil contracts rather than work contracts.

Common scam - they come for very cheap "studies", but in fact, they are here to work.

There are quite often threads on here where "students" are asking if they can work part time. And the answer is always no because the visa does not allow it and in any case nobody would employ them.

Is it actually the reality that they can work on a civil contract and there are plenty of unethical people willing to exploit that ? Many people are at fault in this case - Uber, the "students" themselves, the colleges that invited them and probably the restaurants that are using this service ? Isn't there anything to be done - dishonest employers like this give the honest people a bad name and create unfair competition.

Nothing much at all, the problem is that they can work freely with a residence permit, and there are no restrictions on working. So, let's say someone comes from an Indian village and barely speaks English. He gets accepted to some "higher school" with the name "Warsaw University of Business-Technology" based in some old high school in Praga, where the 'exams' are a complete joke. In reality, he works 40-60 hours a week and doesn't really attend classes, just exams.

Poland is being heavily marketed towards non-EU foreigners as a very easy place to work and gain permanent residence - which is the holy grail for many non-EU citizens. From there, they can also find a wife, which gives them a legal route into more desirable places.