In your heart

Just had a meeting which typifies the way the company I work for acts and behaves. A few days ago "B" approached HR regarding the matter that we have been short paid by around US$150 every month since we joined at the start of 2007. And "B" had brought a copy of his contract which showed that this was indeed the case. But due to the fact his contract looked like it had been photocopied and it had no initial below it by the HR manager. It was tactfully put down as a fake. But "B" said "J" and myself had the same things regarding pay written into our contract. So HR manager asked that the 2 of us brought our contracts in as well.

So roll on today. All 3 of us arrived at the office and just as we were about to enter "J"s wolf like hearing picked up voices behind the closed doors of the office. Of the HR talking to the regional manager about "B" and his "forged" contract. Not a nice way to start. Anyway we knocked and entered. We set about showing our contracts. And if "B"s was debatable, then "J" and mine were about as genuine as they could come. Pristine as the day they were given to us. And each page was initialed by the HR manager and the final page was signed by, HR manager, recruitment manager and the regional manager. But still the HR refused to admit that the contract was true. So we challenged him to show us a copy of a contract we signed that differed from the ones we had in our hands. Frustratedly he flicked thru all of our files and in each one, anything which was contract like reflected the identical figures we had in our hands. So where was his mysteriously smaller pay packet he has been giving us come from? Not being able to find something to support his claims he took 2nd best. He gruffly said well, I don't have a copy of any contract that you guys have signed. Well I fail to see how poor filing on your part means us being penalised? We pressed the issue that this contract we all had and which is also validated by all the parties who signed should be what was to be worked off. But still he refused to pay us that extra US$150 per month we were due. At each turn trying to cite reasons why we should not be paid it but we each countered every 1 of his excuses perfectly leaving him no where left to run. And by that time even the training manager present was being won over by our arguments and was all for paying us. The HR manager stood firm. But now being disarmed by our proof, logic and reasoning he grasped for the last final straw. Holding back the venom, he hissed out, " I will not pay this, because I know these contracts are not the correct ones. They are not genuine. I am not accusing you, But I put it to you, in your hearts, you know... YOU know, what you have done!" WTF!!??!!!????!!! And with that he concluded the meeting.

On a side issue he also tried screwing me out of my leave too. Trying to badger me into signing a load of leave forms he claimed I put in but never signed. Lucky I referred to my shift roster. As 1 of the slips had me applying for leave for days where I was not due to work. And another slip had days duplicated on another leave slip. Basically double booking leave on a day. Applying 2 days leave for a single day. Jeez if you are trying to screw someone please try putting in a lil more effort.

The above incident is the epitome of what it is like working for these people. There are many other cases we been thru. But all on a lesser extent of the above. But still add up 9 or 10 of those lesser incidents and it is just as bad is it not? But still despite knowing all this, our supervisors are shocked when we are demotivated, difficult, indifferent and generally can't be arsed when it comes to work.

Tell me, if you walked in our shoes, would you not be the same?
P.S. We STILL have not been paid our 8months of outstanding pay.