Reservationists who have been called up for mandatory exercises from January to September 2023 are to receive compensation for the cost of driving to and from the military unit. The Ministry of Defence has prepared an amendment to the government on this matter. Earlier, due to a legal gap in the Law on Defence of the Land, reserve soldiers could not number on a refund.
Last year, the media wrote about the case of passive reserve soldiers who were called up for training, but The military didn't reimburse them for driving. to military units. In many cases, reservists had to scope individuals located in distant parts of the country. And as it turned out, from my own pocket, cover the costs of train or bus tickets.
Legal gap
The situation was surprising, that previously the reservists could always number on reimbursement of military travel costs. This was enabled by the Universal Defence work Act of 1967 (including the services of reservists). However, it replaced this old regulation in 2022 Home defence Act. Unfortunately, it did not introduce akin solutions (the transitional provision only allowed reimbursement of costs for reservists, called for military exercises held until the end of 2022). Therefore, only persons summoned to appear in defence matters (e.g. the Chief of Military Recruitment Centre) could be entitled to reimbursement of travel expenses. According to the regulations, it's not the same as calling for reserve practice.
As early as the first half of the year, complaints by reserve soldiers began to flow to the Ombudsman. “This government has led to a situation in which a statutory reserve soldier – apart from having to abandon his professional, household and individual affairs for the time of his appointment – besides finances the cost of attending a military unit. specified shifting of travel costs to citizens violates the principles of coexistence and social justice," said Marcin Wiątek. The Ombudsman so asked the then-president of the MON to change the rules.
The situation was rapidly tried to fix and on 17 August 2023 a revision of the Military Property Agency Act and any another laws was passed, on the occasion of which the expected reserve provision was introduced.
Compensation upon request
But that didn't end the full thing. Although the amendment patched the regulatory gap, it did not solve the problem of reserve soldiers who were practicing from 1 January to 29 September 2023 and paid for the journeys themselves. The current leadership of the Ministry of Defence took a look at the case and decided to amend the regulations so that no of the soldiers suffered financial failure due to exercise. An occasion for this was the amendment of the Law on the Defence of the Motherland. 1 of the proposals contained in it is to grant the right to reimbursement of travel expenses (travel from the place of residence to the place of exercise and back) to this peculiar group of reserveists. There is so a chance that they will shortly be able to get their money.
In order to receive specified a refund, the reservist will gotta apply to the commander of the unit in which he conducted military exercises. The application must be accompanied by evidence of the acquisition of tickets for the carriage by passenger or bus in class 2 or by bus in regular or fast communication. In the absence of proof of acquisition of tickets, the bookingee will receive a refund of the equivalent price of the ticket with the cheapest railway carrier according to the price list applicable on 1 January 2023 for the journey to the place of exercise and back.
The reserve holder will have 12 months to submit the application from the date of entry into force of the rules. The revised Homeland Defence Act is likely to become effective in the first half of 2025, and the cost of one-off compensation for the forgotten group of reserveists will be around PLN 2.04 million.
