Hi all,
I'm not necessarily asking for advice, just want a bit of a winge and to see what other people make of the situation or what they would do, as I'm kind of reaching the end of my very patient and forgiving nature!
Post may be quite long, sorry.
Ok, a bit of background. I have worked for a very well known and international employment agency (yes, I know IaBU expecting a good employment experience working for an agency, but hey-ho, needs must and all that ) since July 2008. From the beginning there have been many many problems, some huge, such as paying me the wrong rate for nearly 6 months, messing up my tax so that I was underpaid at the beginning of the year and had to go onto BR to make sure I paid enough, no explanations of how holidays worked until pushed which meant I lost out on 3 holiday days in 2008 and many other minor problems too numerous to mention. By the beginning of the year, I was only dealing with the branch manager, as they seem to employ the most useless staff known to man and she was marginally less incompetant.
I became pregnant in March this year (am currently 40+9). With this agency, I am entitled to SMP only, which is absolutely fine and what I expected. I informed them of pregnancy when I was 20 weeks, and sent them my MatB1 form. They promptly lost it, and I had to ask for a second one from midwife, which I took into the branch and personally handed to the branch manager.
I ask BM if I need to do anything else to ensure my SMP is organised. She says no, just the form is fine, she will send off to central payroll department, and I verbally let her know when I wish to start maternity leave. I am dubious that verbal notice is adequate, so I write a nice letter informing her when I intend to start maternity leave, and I email it to her and post it to the branch.
I receive a letter stating that they acknowledge that I am pregnant and am eligible to receive SMP, and that my last day of work will be 30th October 2009 (as I have agreed both verbally and written). So all good at this stage, and I am relatively reassured (Murphy's law Gods are currently rofling at me, I am sure... ).
Forward to beginning of November. I am paid weekly in arreers on a Friday, so I am paid as expected on 6th November for my last week of working. I expect that my SMP will start being paid the next Friday. The next Friday arrives, no money in account. I email and telephone the BM, who is out of office until the Monday, and she calls me on the Monday afternoon. She acknowledges that she seems to have made a mistake, and that she had arranged with payroll for my SMP to start in the week I was due to give birth, rather than the week I finished work. She says that she didn't receive my letter informing her of start date of leave (bearing in mind that I received a letter from her, confirming this date!!). Unfortunately, since all payroll is done by lunchtime on a Monday, it is too late to do anything before the coming Friday (20th November), so she has arranged with payroll that I will receive 3 payments on the next Friday (27th November).
Last Friday arrives, and I check my account. No money. I call her, she sounds suitably surprised (not sure why, I wasn't!) and contacts payroll. She calls me back and informs me that I will receive 4 payments this Friday (4th December). alternatively, I can drag my overdue bottom down to their branch to collect a cheque sometime this week if I would prefer (We are currently a one car household until DH sorts his arse into gear and buys a new one, so trips into the town where the branch is located is a 1 hour long bumpy bus ride) and I decline their kind offer to collect cheque.
Forward to this morning, I check my account. STILL NO BLOODY MONEY!!!!
I haven't contacted them yet, I'm too bloody depressed. I just receive promises that aren't fulfilled, although obviously part of me knows I should get onto it straight away so that it might get sorted before I am distracted by a newborn and seriously sleep deprived and hormonal next week (booked in for an induction next Monday night).
So, WWYD? DH says that while I am contacting them to chase up, I am to ask for a head office contact so that I can make a formal complaint, but I'm sort of reluctant to do that until I have finished 'dealing' with them (which won't be until next summer when they finish paying me SMP and I am gladly having nothing to do with them ever again).
It's not even so much the money, as DH is currently paying all bills/mortgage/etc, so I can save my money for when I don't have an income, as I plan to be a Sahm for a few years. That's not really the point though, they don't know that I don't really need the money yet, they could be putting me severely in the shit for all they know.
anyway, sorry for going on, it would be lovely to have some feedback on the situation and a bit of moral support from you lovely ladies (and gentlemen of course).
Thanks for reading!