I had mentioned before the problems I was having with a form that my agency wanted me to sign [click here to read about it]. The situation came to a head and I blew up. I came within minutes of them firing me or me firing them.
Every since I got here they have been pressuring me to sign this form. I kept "forgetting" to sign it hoping they could take a hint. They would call me at work to remind me and I would ask them to send it to me again as I had "misplaced" it.
Finally, a very angry woman from their Sydney office (the top manager from what I gathered) called me at work to chew me out. She tried the carrot and stick approach with me. She told me that only the top managers at the agency could use this privilege and that I would get a courtesy call before they did so. Then she "reminded" me that they are the sponsor of my work visa. I read that as threat which ticked me off. So I blew her off.
My first payday arrived. That morning I got a call from the local Perth manager. He sounded very embarrassed. He told me that I would not get paid unless I signed the form. Then he started into this explanation that he too felt that the form was not right at that they were asking too much of their contractors to sign it, but he was being forced by upper management in Sydney to require me to sign it.
He tried to explain to me that the bank would never allow such a debit to go through anyways without calling me. Riiiiight. Did he really think I am that gullible to believe that the president of the biggest bank in Western Aust. is personally watching the transactions that come to my account. What rubbish!
I told him that I refused to sign it. I was really mad now. I fired off an email to him and his boss telling them that I refused to every sign such a form and that I had better be paid that day. Later that afternoon he called again. He said that they had backed down and were going to write a special form just for me that would satisfy my demands. Happy, I went back to work.
About two hours later the new custom form arrived in my email box. I read. It was the same crap! I was so pissed off now. The form had my name on it, but still it was a permission slip for the bank to allow them to debit my account. The only modification was that they added "only to the amounts deposited by them".
I called the agency on the phone and chewed them out. I told them what I thought of their new "form" and where they shove it. Then I wrote a short letter telling that I would sign a letter promising to return any money I may steal, that I'm not in the business or habit of stealing money from my clients, and if they have a problem with me, all they have to do is call me. I told them that would be the only letter I would sign.
Thirty minutes later they wrote back saying that would be acceptable. Amazing. The next morning one of their secretaries called me to tell me that they got my letter and to thank me for signing their "DC6" form.
"But I didn't sign the DC6 form" I protested.
"I know, but it the letter amounts to the same thing", she answered.
No it is not the same thing. I did get paid, but I expect that from time to time some low level clerk in Sydney is going to discover that I never signed their damn DC6 form and start the whole process all over again.
No comments:
Post a Comment