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Assistance With Possible Legal Issue

Alright, so here's the deal.

I was hired on to work for a company called Satellite Skins. This company had a product that would fit over a Satellite as a cover so you could have your favorite team, country, custom logo, etc.

http://www.satelliteskins.com

I was hired 3 weeks ago. My position was to setup the call center for the new office. I was going to be responsible for purchasing 6 computers, a server, the software needed, and setting everything up to be run. I was also going to hire 6 employee's to run the call center, and I also wrote the call flow proceedure that was going to be executed.

I was told after my first week that I was going to be receiving a salary of $800 a week, which would equivilate down to 10/hr for 40hrs/week. This was a verbal contract agreed that I would be paid bi-weekly.

Today, I went in and was told the entire corporation was going banqrupt. They told me, there is no money, we have no way to pay you and no job. The guy who was my 'boss' was pretty agitated when I said that was not a viable excuse and that I was obligated due to contract stipulations to be payed the amount I was owed. He threatened me stating "You're playing hardball with the wrong guy, I suggest you get the fuck out of this building before I call people to remove you.. and I don't mean the police."

So what would you suggest? I'm going to file a claim under the Labour Board but it won't come into effect for 8-12 months they said, and if they are indeed bankrupt, I'll never see the money.

Small claims court? Lawyer? (I don't have much money for a lawyer, so that's a tough one). I'm not really sure on how to proceed here. My Dad (Forensics for London Police) basically said I'm SOL.

Any help or direction would be appreciated

Alright: here's the deal.

Talk to a lawyer.

Yo man.. that's so shitty.
I had that done on me for some design job however, that's why it's all contracts from now on. I wasn't able to do anything.

If the company is really bankrupt, there isn't much you can do. Any claim you file against them won't matter anyway even if you win.

Two recommendations for you:

1) Talk to a labour lawyer SOON to see what your options are - if the company is not bankrupt at all or has not officially declared bankruptcy *yet* then you might be able to recover something.

2) Don't ever work on a verbal contract again. Everybody is allowed to get burned this way ONCE, but consider this a learning experience - always have a written contract with your employer, and if possible, have a good lawyer read over that contract before you sign it to make sure it is fair.

There *is* the possibility that this is/was some kind of scam. Especially if they said what you quoted to us - that doesn't sound right at all. Did the place look like business as usual, except not including you? Problem is, even if they're full of shit, you're still going to have trouble getting anything out of them if you don't have proof of employment (i.e. a written contract). Do you have any other records which would suffice?

How much work did you do?

Do you have a way to order all sorts of shit and charge him? lol

Ampz

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut If the company is really bankrupt, there isn't much you can do. Any claim you file against them won't matter anyway even if you win. Two recommendations for you: 1) Talk to a labour lawyer SOON to see what your options are - if the company is not bankrupt at all or has not officially declared bankruptcy *yet* then you might be able to recover something. 2) Don't ever work on a verbal contract again. Everybody is allowed to get burned this way ONCE, but consider this a learning experience - always have a written contract with your employer, and if possible, have a good lawyer read over that contract before you sign it to make sure it is fair. There *is* the possibility that this is/was some kind of scam. Especially if they said what you quoted to us - that doesn't sound right at all. Did the place look like business as usual, except not including you? Problem is, even if they're full of shit, you're still going to have trouble getting anything out of them if you don't have proof of employment (i.e. a written contract). Do you have any other records which would suffice?

I'm working on a lawyer right now actually. So that's started at least for information to start with.

I have proof that I worked there as I have confidential documents that were sent to me, as well as the call flow procedure I had worked through.

When contacting the Labour board, I asked specifically about the verbal contract and whether that would screw me. His direct response: "What? Definetly not. It states right here under Section _____ that a contract can entail anything from written, verbal, or even implied wage. He specified pay period, salary, and even wage. That's enough for sure."

I don't think it was a scam because everything I gave them had a stampped watermark on it saying "Copywrite Chris Allen 2005"

quote:

Originally posted by [NFC]Wave I don't think it was a scam because everything I gave them had a stampped watermark on it saying "Copywrite Chris Allen 2005"

I hope you spelled it "Copyright" though

quote:

Originally posted by VERTiG0 I hope you spelled it "Copyright" though

Fuck you spelling patrol.

Edit - I checked, I got it right.

quote:

Originally posted by [NFC]Wave I don't think it was a scam because everything I gave them had a stampped watermark on it saying "Copywrite Chris Allen 2005"

If it said "copywrite" then it was definitely a scam... LOL

I didn't mean to imply that verbal contracts aren't valid contracts, it's just that it's a whole lot more difficult to prove that they were made!

With respect to the copyright, are you saying *you* stamped the stuff, or they did? Because it doesn't really matter what you gave them, it could still have been a scam on their part...

IMHO, sounds like you're screwed...your word against his. AFAIK, you can't claim future job losses or anything like that...so even if you "won" a case, you'd end up with virtually nothing in the end. Besides, if they truly are going bankrupt, there's probably a long line of creditors in front of you?

file with the labour board to put a strike against this guy/company and walk away...then don't ever work under a verbal contract ever again...no offense intended at all, but that's just dumb...but ultimately reasonably irrelevant here anyway (if what I said above is correct).

Sarah's advice is best...lawyer...if you want, I used to work in an office where one has their LLM in labour law and I could provide his number.

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