The Energon Pub

Hey folks, since the whole crash a few months ago I've not recreated the thread as there hasn't been so much going on that was worthy of mention.

This has all since changed...

Got some highly paid legal eyes looking over this and got the reply from my ex-employers lawyers.

Firstly they have screwed up big time by claiming I never worked for them and tried to get this thrown out of court on those grounds. You don't need to be a legal expert to know that when trying to sway a judge on a complex legal point, outrightly lying does not do a lot to gain favour. Judge is sorely p***ed off with them right now for making such a bold faced lie.

I should be hearing from the judge at the end of this month as to what is likely to happen. Ideally if it is a full court case then its game over for my ex-employers as the press will be all over this and all they can hope to do is pay me to stop this going to court...might be a few more legal hurdles they can try, but it will be squarley in the public domain and given the current markets will be catastrophic for their share price.

In other angles to this I've made a data protection request to get all my information, which has been a bit of a tactical move as they have with-held info and lied about certain things, and then HAD to provide certain bits of evidence that bolster my case. They are now in the position of whatever they say in defence of my argument against the data protection issue, screws them over for the employment tribunal and vice versa.

The most amusing turnabout to this is though, as I've been chasing my employers for various bits and pieces and causing them a headache logicistically and being a huge drain on their time from an admin point of view, they have sussed that all the while I'm maneuvering them into giving me bits of info and making statements that screw them over further...end result. The lawyers have said everything goes through them.

This is a result and a half as anything they deal with for me, such as emails will be billed to me ex-employers at the cost effective rate of £485 p/h, which in legal terms is pretty steep. Giving replying to an email requires reference and time spent were talking about 3 hours of work a week with just the odd few emails, which is liable to rack up costs at a very fast rate for my employers....such a shame given all banks are trying to save money now.

This is all while the seperate case of the actuall fraud is going through and they get fined for £70 million. From what I've heard senior people are looking at my boss and questioning his great choice of "yeah sack him, whats he gonna do???"

Seems that multi million pound repurcussions are not great for your career prospects, there is even a rumour that when the company needs to offer someone up to the police for being accountable for the fraud, they are gonna hang my boss out to dry, meaning he will do a stint in Changi jail.

Normally I wouldn't be soo cruel, but now I've finally moved into my own place and keep thinking about things I've lost, such as my G1 boxed Shockwave and other TFs that I lost along with just about most of what I own thanks to being sacked and kicked out of the country then I really have no smypathy for this man and think rotting in prison is about as good as he deserves.

Ya know, just yesterday I was wondering what the latest was with this story, now I know. I'm glad things are working out in your favour, but it's a shame that you may never see anything you left behind again.

Wow. Your ex-employers will stop at nothing, won't they. Hope this works out for you.

I was really hoping you'd update soon.

Definitely keep us posted.

I've been reading this, but never posted.

I'm sorry, but I forget why you got kicked out of the country. Could you explain more? It seems weird that you had to flee especially during a court battle. Were you not able to have anyone check on your stuff while you were gone?

all I can say is that really sucks, but give em hell nonetheless.

I agree with rex, I'd like to read up on the events prior.

robofreak wrote:I've been reading this, but never posted.

I'm sorry, but I forget why you got kicked out of the country. Could you explain more? It seems weird that you had to flee especially during a court battle. Were you not able to have anyone check on your stuff while you were gone?

Sorry if you never got to read my initial post so this all seems a bit like jumping into Heroes or Lost midway through the second season

I worked for a large investment bank in UK, and as part of a promotion and global money saving excercise, they transitioned the IT service desk to Singapore. Me and several others got jobs with relocation packages over there. Relocation is a costly thing, and given a few months notice you can afford to move back home.

Shipping container costs about £4000, my wages were around £2000 per month, so as you can see, moving all your stuff is a 2 month hit on your wages straight away.

I got sacked after an investigatory meeting, via email 2 days before payday. The official reason was that I disclosed my bonus to my family and my former lodger claimed I hacked his hotmail account. The real reason was that I uncovered a multi million pound software fraud and the company wanted me silenced.

As I was not a native of Singapore, if you get sacked then your work permit gets revoked, meaning you have to leave the country in 14 days. Another nice angle is that as soon as you leave a job or give notice to leave, the company files a form to the IRAS (Tax people) who then stop all your wages to ensure your tax bill is paid before you leave.

This all amounted to me being sacked a few days before payday at the end of the month, with rent due, and no money coming in for at least 3 months (thats the average turnaround for the tax office) and me needing to be out of the country in 14 days. There was little I could but scrape together what money I had to get a flight home, and then choose what was important to me to store. We're talking minimal amounts of possesions. A lot of my TF's got saved, but that was very hard looking thinking, was goes and what stays.

To put it in perspective, I had 53 boxes shipped over when I moved there, which includes furniture, and I bought loads of stuff while I was there as the cost of living was so cheap. When I left I managed to save about 12 boxes of stuff which was about 3ft x 3ft x 3ft. All of this is still in Singapore, it will cost about £1000 to get it all back and I need to fly back there to sign the customs forms, so I'm still without what little of my stuff I have, even though it is safe somewhat. The rest of my stuff was left in my apartment that I rented, so my landlord, while not getting any rent and questioning where the hell I was and not answering my phone, would at least have come round to a fully furnished apartment, so he came out of this alright

I'm still sad about the loss, but feel much better now I'm back home in blighty with all my mates around me, but its still essentially getting sacked and losing more or less everything I own all for not being willing to commit fraud and doing the right thing.

I think the company and their lawyers think that if they can flex there muscles and scare me I'll drop it, but they really have yet to grasp that having lost everything, there is really so little to lose by taking this all the way.

Hope that brings you up to speed on the whys and wherefores

A couple of questions. How come you're getting your data protected? Probably because your ex-employers can tamper with it to make you look like the bad guy, right?

And second, what's an employment tribunal? It's ane mployment watchdog, right? Kind of like the BBB over here and the States? This should be obvious, but I'm gonna ask anyway. Not the first time I've gotten something wrong that I thought was obvious.

Me, Grimlock! wrote:A couple of questions. How come you're getting your data protected? Probably because your ex-employers can tamper with it to make you look like the bad guy, right?

No worries.

The Data Protection Act 1998 is an act in the UK, similar to what I think you guys call bills in the states.

It means that if there is any information a company or organisation hold on you then legally you have a right to see it. The company has 40 days to comply with a request to provide it. Most people never go the whole hog and ask for it. I just know from experience it is a nightmare to comply with.

You have a right to see any document the company has that has your name in it as it contains information relating to you and the law states you have a right to see what it is and how they are using it.

This means even down to emails people send about you or reports people have made on you, then you have a right to see them. The reason I asked for this is that, there are reports made on me and emails sent about me internally that all relate to the fraud. I already got a lot off site, but the company doesnt know what, so they either chance it and dont send me things or send me bit and pieces. Either way they have with held items that I can prove as I already have them, meaning I can get the courts in involved to go in and do their own search as they are deliberatly lying.

When you consider they said I never worked for them as well when there is such overwhelming evidence I did makes a judge even more distrusting of them

End result, all the fraud evidence will be dragged out and presented to me...and oh yes, this will be in open court so there is a chance (if someone were to tell them the dates) that the press will be there.....

Me, Grimlock! wrote:And second, what's an employment tribunal? It's ane mployment watchdog, right? Kind of like the BBB over here and the States? This should be obvious, but I'm gonna ask anyway. Not the first time I've gotten something wrong that I thought was obvious.

An employment tribunal is an informal court with the UK that you applu to have a hearing at if you have any employment dispute that cannot be sorted out by reasonable means, or if you have been sacked, as you have come to the end of the line with your employer.

Many people think it is an easy case of threatening this and making your employers scared, however there is a lot of red tape you have to go through to show you have exhausted all other avenues.

Employment tribunals have the powers to fine and make orders such as re-instatement of employees to employers. The most common is a fine and award for compensation to be paid. As with all British legal practise though, should you feel this is not a correct ruling you can appeal this all the way up to the house of lords.

Generally most court cases are rarely appealed as you need to show the judge was in error on a point of law.

Just so you have an idea of what they stand to loose, a whistleblowing claim has an average payout of £100,000 with the highest recording payout thus far being £800,000. Suffice to say the PR angle of this is potentially more damaging than the fines itself

Thanks for bringing me up to speed. From the sounds of it, you have enough evidence against them that you'll get a good bit of money out of the case. Maybe you'll be able to track down all your stuff again?

Here's hoping that all goes well for you!

Seems the wheels of justice are finally starting to turn.

My boss, and his boss, the ones who agreed to the software piracy and treated me like dog poop. Well their boss who was by all means of the same breed (City boy fueled by testosterone who threw his weight around)...

Well he has got the boot from the company this morning, along with several others, don't know the exact details, but while it might appear my boss is hanging on in there, this has severly weakened his position as his bosses were all in this with him and they knew they had to stick together. With the most senior of this triumverate of incompetance gone, then my boss has few people to protect him any longer.

This news is only a few hours old so more details are they emerge guys....

I hope those guys really get what they deserve out of this. It sounds like that's starting to happen. I hope you sue the h*** out of them for this. Good Luck.

Well done. It's always good to hear stories of large corporations getting recompense. Now let's hope the UK courts will handle protecting the employees not related to the scandal that better than the US courts.

God speed on this continuing to go well.

I had been wondering where this issue stood. Thanks for the update skyshadowprimus! I'm glad this is still moving forward in your favor (even if it is a little slow).

Best of luck to you! I'm sure if there is anything the seibertron community can do for you we will!

Iron Prime wrote:I had been wondering where this issue stood. Thanks for the update skyshadowprimus! I'm glad this is still moving forward in your favor (even if it is a little slow).

Best of luck to you! I'm sure if there is anything the seibertron community can do for you we will!

Cheers.

All I would ask is to boycott the bank in question if possible, and when this hits the news, be sure to do your part in telling people of your knowledge of the tale in the hopes they too will avoid this crooked company.

Another tiny update for today, don't think I'd mentioned this as it was so trivial, but I'm owed $600 worth of taxi expenses which have yet to be paid. After emailing the global head of HR for the whole company complaining about being ignored by his "underlings" I got an email of this useless HR manager quoting.

"we will not be paying you the expenses as you did not submit receipts as is required by our policy, however as a goodwill gesture we will be paying $123.90 (not the $600 alleged by you) for the outstanding claims"

So she is saying I never submitted the expenses so she wont be paying them, however she does seem to know (without having the expense form) that I am claiming too much and I should only be paid $123.90.

I forwarded this to her boss and explained how stupid this makes both her and the company seem, I've got $123.90 paid to me and the battle for the rest continues...if nothing else I'm annoying them on a daily basis with regular emails chasing this.

Well folks, its been a while but now the action and excitement finally reaches fever pitch.

I got a letter on Friday that the court will be listing my case for a pre-hearing review to determine if they have jurisdiction to be able to hear it (as I worked abroad and I'm bringing the claim in Britain)

I was hoping to go straight to a court date as this means I will get tied up in some red tape first, however its not all bad news. The courts have asked for full disclosure of documents and witness statements beforehand, which to my mind inidcates that they see this going all the way and the pre-hearing review is a formality.

The other up side to this is that I can now "expose" all my documents into the disclosure bundle putting them firmly into the public domain, meaning that when the pre-hearing review occurs, certain documents can no longer be suppressed. This is ideal if any press just so happen to be in the court.

I am eagerly waiting to see exactly what documents they list as I have got hold of some very damning bits of evidence that proves my boss and my lodger set me up and lied to the police about the whole hotmail thing (not going into detail about those here for obv reasons) but these alone should throw their evidence into chaos. Plus I still have some other bits and pieces up my sleeve that should damage the PR of the bank.

All in all, once this exchange takes place and we both know what the other side is going to be relying on in court, it gives a much better idea of who the winner will be, and, suprises aside, its not looking good for them. With any luck I could be looking at a phone call with a payout very soon, even then, after all this, part of me wants to go the whole hog and drag this through the courts and press for a taste of the sweet revenge

Still I shall wait until we see what they offer.

First deadline is just under 3 weeks from now for lists of documents, then 2 weeks after that for actual disclosure.

Court date will be announced probably within a week or so now

Ooooh I'm all excited...oh and in another story, they FINALLY agreed to pay me my expenses of $500 (after claiming I never sent them) so thats another little win for me after 3 months of hassling them with spam levels of emails demanding payment.

I shall keep you folks posted

Hey SkyShadowPrimus! Thanks for the update, I'm glad things are looking up for you. I was just thinking last Thursday and Friday that we hadn't heard any updates - but I got busy so this stayed on my "to do" list. And low and behold you beat me to it!

Good luck!
I.P.

And on a totally unrelated note...

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090113/tu ... 23e80.html

Can't possibly imagine why an investment bank that claims it is "weathering the current financial storm well" would need to make 2100 job cuts...

*gets out calculator* lemme see, average annual wage of £45,000 (give or take) x by 2100 staff equals... £94,500,000 annual saving.

Now lets add up recent software fines...illegal useage of £3,600,000 x by 20 for the fines equals..... £72,000,000

Food for thought me thinks......

[Serpent O-R hi-fives SkyShadowPrimus]

Bravo!

Those bastards have a lot worse coming their way, especially with the economy on the rocks.

I'd wish you luck, but you don't need it anymore.

When will these blue-bloods realize their power comes from their wage slaves.

City Commander wrote:
I hate goddamn banks, and I'd love to see them all collapse.
This would be a very good start!

All? That seems a bit extreme... I think you're underestimating the effect, for starters I doubt we'd have anymore TF's....

{color=green]In all honesty, I wouldn't mind.

I hate banks that much. All they do is cause trouble, and we'd do better without them. [/color]

Let's all go back to the dark ages!

And die from bubonic plague.

DOWN WITH CAPITALISM!

I like this. One topic in General Discussion devoted to world peace (well, at least in potential) and another to bringing down the system. This is what the internet was made for.

Well if you consider that this bank confirmed they dont do background checks on employees, it does make you a little wary of trusting them with your money.

Now in the current climate, with everyone worried for the safety of their money, a media story would really hype this up, so I think the whole "down with the banks" line isnt that much of a dream, with the fraud, lack of background checks, inability to be able to take a government bailout due to criminal fines, and another gem I have up my sleeeve, we have a damning story that could send the bank into a freefall, will it sink or swim...we shall have to wait and see