IT Support - Start Tomorrow!!

The Brigadier

Guys,

we have some more of the IT Support Positions available again!!

Rate is €10/hr - 40hrs a week. IT graduates with no experience or guys with IT support expereince.

Role is DSL support!!

This is an immediate start role - you can be interviewd and offered the job today!!

Send cvs to

liam@stelfox.ie

tHe_DaGs_BaGs

I guess nobody wants to work for the rat do they?

Where did the extra 66c go from the hourly rate?

looks like stelfox are shafting their employees again, by skimming that extra bit off the top.

as an ex-stelfox contractor, I'd say to one and all to keep as far away from them as you can, they are ther biggest bunch of cowboys in the irish IT industry and are only interested in their bottom line.

I took on a role with them over a year ago, and they tried to shaft us every step of the way.

it ended up with over 20 people threatening to not come in over xmas last year because they were screwing us around so much, and they had to send liam and keith in to talk to some of the other guys who were chosen to represent us and ended up caving in over what they had planned (about the 6th shaft since we had started).

I've never spoken to anyone who has anythign but contempt for them.

they are a complete bunch of @ssholes they really are.

the most unprofessional agency i have ever had the displeasure of working with.

One time, when they were in mid-shaft, two of the other guys had complained that stelfox had no right to do what they were doing in a telephone conversation (I was sat next to one of them, and could hear the conversation through another headset) and keith's exact words were 'well, if you don't like it you know what you can do, don't you? nobody is forcing you to work there, if you don't like it, go somewhere else'. I couldn't believe it, but that said it all. I left soon after, but have kept in contact with some of the other guys there, and stelfox are doing exactly the same thing every chance they get.

Just a word of warning, so you know what you are getting yourself into. maybe you need the work, but do you really need it that much?

WhiteWashMan

actually, i think you will find that for a lot people, getting experience and learning is quiet high on their list of priorities right now.
if i was a low level techie, i'd be going for that job.

also, if youare going to make accusations, can you at least back them up with something useful instead of constantly referring to being shafted?

at least try to be constructive in your critisism of a company. after all, i wouldnt want you to be sued for libel, would i now?

tHe_DaGs_BaGs

well, where do i start?

when i started, there were 10 of us, within 3 weeks they had increased our working hours (admittedly only 30 mins at a time) to 2 hours more than originally agreed when we had signed the contract with no increase in pay because we were being paid a daily rate.

then they didn't pay us on time (repeatedly) over the following months, with no proper valid explanation.

then they tried to change us from being paid at the end of the month for that month to weekly 4 weeks in arrears mid way through the contract. this meant that at the end of the month instead of having a months wages in our hands to pay rent with and buy food, we would be getting a weeks wages (not enough to live on anyway).

they sent new contracts for us to sign with the new terms and conditions, and said that we would not be paid at all until we signed them

this was also the point that we were told if we didn't like it we could leave and everyone agreed that if they tried to push this, we would all refuse to come in to work because we knew if we all stood together we'd be more likely to get things sorted.

some of the guys took our petition (if you can call it that) with all our signatures on it to HR and they called stelfox and read the letter to them.

they agreed that they would come down and discuss it with us and we should have 4 representatives to speak for the group. the 4 people who had been there the longest went to the meeting and embarrassed keith and liam in front of HR and another manager there into giving in, and not doing the weekly in arrears pay thing, and a few other things they had done. both the guys keith had told to leave if they didn't like it were there, and contronted him about it, and he flatly denied ever even saying it, but i don't think anyone believed him anyway from what they said.

after that it was quiet for a bit, and then out of nowhere stelfox decided that everyone had to pay tax through some 3rd party company. some of us refused, but those who gave in ended up having all sorts of problems getting paid on time after that, which kept getting worse and worse.

thankfully, that was about the time I left, so I don't know if it's still as bad as it was, but they will never change because they don't give a sh*t about the people working for them, plain and simple.

WizZard

Why didn't you contact a solicitor? Or did you?

dub45

Why didn't you contact a solicitor? Or did you?

Probably because of the cost invovled? This is a factor which puts a lot of people off pursuing claims.

WizZard

Thats true, but isn't there another way. I know a lot of people in similar positions because of companies who have the moral character of a sewer rat.
Can you take these guys to the Small Claims Court? Or is there a department specifically to help people who are self-employed contractors?

The Brigadier

These positions are on a normal contracting basis, there is nothing untoward going on.

If you don't want to apply for these positions then fine. There are plenty of people working in them at the moment who are :

(a) Glad of the experience
(b) Glad of the income
(c) Perfectly happy with the way things are run.

I am not going to get dragged into a mud throwing contest, I have posted the jobs up to simply "help" fellow boards users who are trying to find work. At the moment there is not a lot about.

The roles are filled.

Our man in Havana

Originally posted by WizZard
Thats true, but isn't there another way. I know a lot of people in similar positions because of companies who have the moral character of a sewer rat.
Can you take these guys to the Small Claims Court? Or is there a department specifically to help people who are self-employed contractors?

No you cannot use the small claims court to persue debts or employment matters.

The employment appeals tribunal is the correct forum for such complaints. You need a years service to use them.

The Labour inspectorate can investigate claims of not paying satatuory wages, holidays, OWTA breaches etc.

The only other recourse is under contract law for breach of contract in the civil courts.

When you become self employed you sell all your rights away. NO holiday pay, no sick pay, no social welfare benefits as self employed dont pay full stamp. You have no rights underr employment acts at all.

Natually companies prefer this approach as if anything goes wrong you cannot use the channels open to normal PAYE workers.

Lenny

Where is the work located?
No means of transport here only public...

eth0_

Originally posted by Lenny
Where is the work located?
No means of transport here only public...

AFAIK it's in eastpoint. And he said the roles were filled.
C'mon, looking at all the abuse eircom dsl gets on here....would you really want to listen to their customers all day? :-)
And that stelfox crowd don't sound like a company i'd want to get involved with.

KdjaCL

Labour court costs €5 to submit a complaint and damn they good.

Should be a sticky about them here.
Prolly is me looking now

kdjac

tHe_DaGs_BaGs

yeah, it's eastpoint which is fine if you're anywhere along the dart route cos you can get off at clontarf road station and either get the free eastpoint bus or walk it in 10 mins.

as for stelfox, looks like they're on the way out anyway cos I've seen other agencies on irishjobs advertising eircom.net roles recently, and up until now they have been the exclusive agency for the rat.

they are always looking for new victims anyway, at least once a month, normally 10 or more people.

pebble

Ok chaps.

2 things.

1) This is a thread advertising some positions. If people have questions on the positions, they should reply.
If anyone has a problem with the contracting company, then by all means, feel free to start a new thread and link it to these threads to bleet about it.
Thats what the work forum is for.
However, I'd rather that threads advertising work didnt do meandering off on different tangents.
Ok

2) James Melody has made a deal with whitewashman that he can put up advertisments for genuine positions as long as there is no advertisment, and the position are indeed genuine. James, can you confirm that?
As long as that deal is in place, I will certainly honour it, the idea being that while James obviously gets paid to do this sort of thing, it allows boards users to get first dibs on positions before the public snap them up. Hence there is a service to Boards.Ie users as well.
Now, with that in mind, and a PM from whitewashman this morning, James Melody has nothing to do with how contracts are run or how staff are treated. I would appreciate it if people could remember that in future before anyone says anything about Mr Melody's involvment in. S/he is simply a facilitating agent (or an employement agent to you and me) in the deal. So please do not directly involve him/her in any company problems.
James is free to read any persons threads on problem companies and it's his/her decision to be involved with them.

Hope that clears up any problems.
Cheers.

WizZard

OK, thats quite acceptable pebble, but the roles aren't DSL support (immediate start), is this not false advertising?

pebble

What roles are they then?
Anyone?

seamus

Originally posted by pebble
What roles are they then?
Anyone?

They're Internet tech support, eventually leading to DSL Support, around 3-5 months into the contract depending on how the company schedule their training.

pebble

Well, im not going to split hairs over that to be honest.

Really you people, go back to work!