Poland’s debt to Constitutional Tribunal judges nears 1.5 million zlotys — RMF24

In Poland, the amount of unpaid remuneration owed to Constitutional Tribunal judges who were not allowed to hear cases has approached 1.5 million zlotys. According to RMF24, four judges elected by the Sejm in March have still not taken office, although they had to leave their previous jobs.

Remuneration is not being paid

As RMF24 calculated, the basic remuneration of a Constitutional Tribunal judge amounts to nearly 44,000 zlotys gross, or more than 30,000 zlotys net. Since their election in March, each of the four judges who still do not hear cases should have accrued more than 300,000 zlotys gross.

The total amount of the state’s obligations to these four judges alone has exceeded 1.2 million zlotys. The judges sought payments from the Sejm, which elected them, but Sejm Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty refused. He explained that if the Constitutional Tribunal does not pay the remuneration, the government should resolve the matter. At the same time, the government has also not made payments.

RMF24 notes that this amount should include one month of Sławomir Patyra’s term, during which he waited to take the oath, as well as nearly one month of Maciej Berek’s term. Every month, the state’s obligations to the five judges who do not hear cases grow by nearly 220,000 zlotys.

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Oaths and exclusion from hearing cases

In March, the Sejm elected six new Constitutional Tribunal judges: Krystian Markiewicz, Marcin Dziurda, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, Maciej Taborowski, Magdalena Bentkowska and Dariusz Szostek. Bentkowska and Szostek were invited to the presidential palace on April 1, where they took the oath. The remaining four did not receive invitations: the Chancellery of the President of Poland explained this by saying that their situation required further analysis.

On April 9, the four took the oath in the Sejm’s Column Hall using the formula that they were doing so “before the president.” Constitutional Tribunal judge Bogdan Święczkowski did not allow them to hear cases, stating that the events in the Sejm could not be recognized as taking the oath “before the president.”

In June, the Sejm elected Sławomir Patyra as a judge. At the end of July, he took the oath at the presidential palace, but said that he would not hear cases until the other four judges were allowed to do so. Maciej Berek was elected a judge in September, and on October 14 he took the oath in the Sejm.