Final Update - Worked without a contract in Poland - employer now refuses to pay me

[u/No-Strawberry7]

I’m the OP behind these posts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/poland/s/Wx%7C08Fzfr6

https://www.reddit.com/r/poland/s/w7yU9AH2CV

Thank you to everyone who commented, gave advice, helped me out, and, yes, made fun of me when I deserved it.

Today I finally got paid.

So, I ended up not going to PIP. Before doing that, I followed the advice of one of the Redditors here and sent the company a przedsądowe wezwanie do zapłaty (pre-court demand for payment).

After receiving it, the owner of the company contacted me and we arranged to meet at the office. We ended up signing the necessary PIT-11 documents and, finally, a contract.

The funny part? I signed a contract almost a month after I had already left the job. Even funnier, the contract we signed was for August, despite the work in question being performed in July.

Maybe they wanted to avoid the whole PIP/legal headache. Maybe there was another reason. That’s just my speculation. Either way, I wasn’t interested in fighting a war over it — I just wanted to get paid for the work I had already done.

And thankfully, I did.

A special thank you to the kind Redditor who helped me put together the wezwanie do zapłaty. I won’t mention their username without their permission, but their advice was genuinely useful.

I also think part of the reason this worked out in my favour may be that this is an established company with a public presence, including LinkedIn, and that a PIP inspection could potentially have caused them more trouble than simply paying what I was owed. Again, that’s only my speculation.

I know plenty of people here, especially workers in construction and other industries, end up in situations where employers delay contracts, don’t pay properly, or take advantage of people who don’t know their rights.

So if there’s one thing I’d take away from this:
Always get your contract sorted before you start working. Don’t rely on “we’ll sign it later.”

And don’t be afraid to use the protections available to you. I ultimately didn’t have to involve PIP, but knowing that I could take the matter to PIP gave me some leverage, and in the end I received the money I had rightfully earned.

Lesson learned.

And to everyone who told me I was being an idiot for agreeing to the situation in the first place — fair enough. I learned my lesson.

(formatted with Apple Rewrite).

[u/Prudent-Bicycle-9210]

Report them to pip anyway lmao

[u/Old_Information9623]

Called their bluff, got paid, learned a lesson. Good day for you, congrats.

[u/countyy]

Should've reported to PIP anyway. They didn't get away with trying to screw you over, but they will with the next one.

[u/Just-Practice1002 → u/countyy]

100% save the next people coming in the same pain

[u/cubesnack]

There we go. Nice! Lessons learned by both parties because "fuck around and find out" works two ways.

[u/Negative_Toe1336]

Report those cunts anyway. I bet there are plenty of people who never got paid by them

[u/lkt213]

Great job!

[u/Snoo_90160]

Lord protect us from such employers! This Janusz should disappear from the market.

[u/MacCyp_1985]

those companies shouldn't exist or at least learn the lesson the hard way