Success before the Voivodship Administrative Court in a case concerning a complaint against a decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration

Success before the Voivodship Administrative Court in a case concerning a complaint against a decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration

The Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw has allowed the complaint prepared by the Sowisło & Topolewski Law Firm against the decision of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration issued pursuant to Article 8 of the Act on Retirement Benefits for Officers. The procedure was initiated with a motion addressed to the Minister of the Interior and Administration, who in particularly justified cases can exclude provisions reducing the retirement or disability pension of an officer who served before 1990. The exclusion may occur where the service before 1990 was short-lived and the officer performed his or her duties reliably, in particular where the tasks entrusted to him or her were performed at risk to life and health. Although the Complainant’s service before 1990 constituted only 10% of his service years, and he had outstanding achievements in the service, for which he was distinguished, the Authority issued a negative decision.

The Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw disagreed with the standpoint of the Authority on the interpretation of the concept of “short-term service”, admitting that the arguments presented by the Law Firm in its complaint were correct, namely that this premise cannot be interpreted only in the linguistic sense, as the key factor was the semantic context in which the concept of “short-term service” operates. The point of reference should be the duration of the professional career, so the service which lasted several years may be considered as short-term.

The judgment of the Voivodship Administrative Court is of significant importance in the context of decisions issued by the Minister of the Interior and Administration.

The Complainant was represented by attorney Jan Dudzik and trainee attorney Dominika Krzysztofik.

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