Pole claims compo for her bad English

DiamondGeezer

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By JOHN TROUP

Published: Today
A POLISH cleaner is suing a British firm for £25,000 — claiming her bad English should be recognised as a DISABILITY.

Izabela Klarecka, 30, says she was paid less than the minium wage — because she could not understand a job contract.

She was paid just £3 an hour to clean at a hotel — when the statutory minimum wage is £5.52 an hour.

Izabela is seeking “moral damages” on the grounds she did not understand her employment contract and it amounted to discrimination.

She agreed to be paid £1.84 for each room she cleaned at the Travelodge in Luton, Beds.

But she claims it was impossible to clean three rooms in an hour, as her boss had claimed.

Izabela, from Hatfield, Herts, said: “The employer said we were going to be paid £1.84 per room, and we would be able to clean three rooms in an hour, spending 20 minutes in each room.

“That meant we would be receiving the minimum wage of £5.52 an hour, but it soon emerged cleaning each room actually took about 40 minutes.

“Our pay turned out to be about half the minimum wage.

“When this became clear to us we tried to address the matter.

“But our direct manager, who was Polish, refused to accept our arguments.

“He insisted it was possible to clean a room in 20 minutes.
“He even tried to get his wife to demonstrate this and she didn’t manage it either.”

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Izabela’s husband Tomasz will represent her at an industrial tribunal in Bedford next month.

He hopes to track down more non-English speakers and make further claims against the firm, ISS Facility Services.

Tomasz, 35, said: “Inability to communicate in English is a handicap that disables a person working in Great Britain.

“This wording is in accordance with the definition of disability included in the Disability Discrimination Act.

“I added the disability issue to the case because the injured parties did not speak English.

“It seemed to me that if they had spoken the language they wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be exploited like that.”

ISS said it would not comment on the case before the tribunal begins.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1507522.ece
 
some arse will feel sorry for her and she'll win, cant speak/ understand the language shouldn't be working here
real people with real disabilities get fooked like this, dont here them complaining

sorry if this offends, but its my opinion
 
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some arse will feel sorry for her and she'll win, cant speak/ understand the language shouldn't be working here
real people with real disabilities get fooked like this, dont here them complaining

sorry if this offends, but its my opinion

Agree with you, but I think this one will get laughed out of court. She's on commission so has no legs to stand on.
 
Agree with you, but I think this one will get laughed out of court. She's on commission so has no legs to stand on.

get laughed out or open the flood gates

can't understand these people, it's like the've had a gun put to their head and forced to leave their homeland and to work here
 
Not being able to speak the language is a disabilty. That's a fecking joke!

I'm hate the fact that people try and take the pi$$ out of foreign nationals who come here and want to work in place of the lazy barstewards that want to bleed benefits, but that excuse for getting paid less than the miniumum wage is a feckin' disgrace. Especially when her boss is Polish!

A mate of mine's dad runs a farm here in Scotland and employes loads of foreign nationals (Mainly Polish) because he knows that they want to work and put in a hard days graft to earn their wages. Good wages.

He also lets them live off the farm and stay on the farm if they so please.

Why! Because he can't get British citizens to do the work!

Mind you, the source of the story is 'The Sun' therefore probably a load of shite!

Can't say I've seen the story on any decent news websites.
 
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You couldn’t make it up, lets see what the PC Guys make of this
 
Izabela is seeking “moral damages” on the grounds she did not understand her employment contract and it amounted to discrimination.

She agreed to be paid £1.84 for each room she cleaned at the Travelodge in Luton, Beds.

But she claims it was impossible to clean three rooms in an hour, as her boss had claimed.

Izabela, from Hatfield, Herts, said: “The employer said we were going to be paid £1.84 per room, and we would be able to clean three rooms in an hour, spending 20 minutes in each room.

“That meant we would be receiving the minimum wage of £5.52 an hour, but it soon emerged cleaning each room actually took about 40 minutes.

“Our pay turned out to be about half the minimum wage.

“When this became clear to us we tried to address the matter.

“But our direct manager, who was Polish, refused to accept our arguments.

“He insisted it was possible to clean a room in 20 minutes.
“He even tried to get his wife to demonstrate this and she didn’t manage it either.”

i think the title The Sun has given this article is VERY misleading and verging on a racist rant. she was obviously ripped off and wants something done about it. it's that simple. her boss wants booting out of the country.

:Cheers:
 
If anyone wants to live and work in an English speaking country then they should have the decency to learn the language. I don't believe this is about rights or disabilities....if they think they are not getting the minimum wage then they should keep to that but adding that she didnt understand the contract because she can't understand English is just a way of trying to screw some money for nothing.

Who pays for the court fees....Joe fekkin public again I suppose. I thought immigrants had to pass some sort of English test or is that not right ???

If she was here before that came into play them wtf is with her still not understanding English.

But then again as baaheeduk said...it is in the gutter press and judge for yourself if you believe that rag.
 
If anyone wants to live and work in an English speaking country then they should have the decency to learn the language.


The Aussie way.

The Government of Australia greatly supports the citizenship test for migrants wishing to become citizens of the country through naturalization. The citizenship test that Australia offers not only includes an English language proficiency test but also provides questions regarding the history and culture of Australia.

There's oviously more text than that though. SEE HERE for the rest and other countries stipulations.
 
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She's on commission so has no legs to stand on.
not so. unless you are employed as a subcontractor (self employed), even on commission, you can not be paid less than £5.52 per hour, for the time you work. I believe that's why its called the MINIMUM wage.
i must admit though, she, undoubtedly has a disability, and a very profound one too. anyone who thinks they can form any sort of a life for themselves in a foreign country, without first having a command of the language, is more than a few sandwiches short of a picnic imo.
 
If anyone wants to live and work in an English speaking country then they should have the decency to learn the language. I don't believe this is about rights or disabilities....if they think they are not getting the minimum wage then they should keep to that but adding that she didnt understand the contract because she can't understand English is just a way of trying to screw some money for nothing.

they would be alright if they were working for a fair Polish gang master, who spoke perfectly good English. he just tells/shows them what to do, any probs they go to him.

it is a bit mad to assume that u can build a life in another country without first learning it's language tho ;) i'm not sure how our immigration laws stand on this as i've never been arsed to find out
 
not so. unless you are employed as a subcontractor (self employed), even on commission, you can not be paid less than £5.52 per hour, for the time you work. I believe that's why its called the MINIMUM wage.
i must admit though, she, undoubtedly has a disability, and a very profound one too. anyone who thinks they can form any sort of a life for themselves in a foreign country, without first having a command of the language, is more than a few sandwiches short of a picnic imo.

I think you may be wrong on this one. Even though we have a minimum wage in this country you can still pay much less as long as you show they they could make the money up else where like tips.
 
It's a disgrace that companies such as The Crappy Hard Rock Cafe can act this way. The sooner they stop this the better for all those on low income.
 
It's a disgrace that companies such as The Crappy Hard Rock Cafe can act this way. The sooner they stop this the better for all those on low income.

I agree its a total disgrace how the manipulate the law. I did see on the news that one restaurant will still allow their staff to keep the tips when it comes in...but I can't find an article about it.
 
Yer I wonder , come out come out where ever you are

Maybe you have the PC guys tagged incorrectly (I assume you have me in that category). It's just when I hear stuff that to me sounds at worst bigotry and at best ignorance then i will speak up, however nothing here falls into those categories.

Apologies for biting and being off topic here.
 
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