So my wife is a civil servant, she moved departments in mid January, her pay transfer/ HR was being dealt with by SSCL a private company who have made a massive hash of it. She still hasn't been transferred over to her new department and has now been taken off the system of her old department. This means that potentially at the end of the month she won't get paid! Up to now she has been getting her previous salary through SSCL and her old departments budget but that now can't happen as she isn't on the system.
She is now due 10 weeks back pay as she also received a promotion in the move but her major concern is not receiving anything at the end of the month- to say that this situation is causing us a great deal of stress would be an understatement.
She has been contacting the service centre daily but quite frankly they are useless and have not managed to get anything done- they have apparently sent the paperwork 5 times. When she tries to make a complaint or threaten legal action, both in writing and over the phone she gets no response and gets left on hold.
In the past you guys have managed to conjure up some brilliant email addresses that have helped other users rectify customer service issues. I have tried to find the email addresses of the directors but haven't had any luck, can anyone help?
She needs to speak to her boss and escalate it that way.
Definitely sounds like a job for her boss or HR. No point working for the man if you take care of these things yourself
she has done all of those things and escalated it at both ends but because its a seperate entity neither department can actually get any results- spoken to her union and they haven't had much success
Try john.neilson@sscl.com or Jeanette.smith@sscl.com
http://www.sscl.com/people.aspx
This is a complete punt, BTW, based on their generic contact address (info@sscl.com) and the above mentioned people's names
I'll give it a shot, cheers
Nope that didn't work sadly
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC279494
This one maybe
or this
http://www.sscl.com/contact.aspx
It doesn't seem like they twitter much - at least not since 2013.
no this one https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08460577/filing-history
and yes they don't like twitter!
Surely your wife's contract is with the Civil Service and therefore as suggested above, this is something her boss needs to take up?
Yes it is but as already mentioned her boss on both new and old departments have not managed to get anywhere- they all have the same contact number and no one has managed to be able to get beyond the call centre.
The fact that payroll is contracted out is irrelevant. Its her civil service boss thats responsible for getting her paid and if she doesn't get paid and that causes her loss ie bounced mortgage payments or whatever they are liable for that as well
I'd try the press office: monica.owen@soprasteria.com
or one of the directors :
http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/person/64158/peter-atherton-cashmore
thanks for that slackboy, that was what i was looking for
MP ?
I think your MP is due for an ear-bashing about this. Either they can try to defend it after having supported it, or use it as criticism.
yeah MP and legal are routes we are exploring but when you mention legal proceedings and they hang up on you it makes it rather difficult to actually get anywhere beyond the call centre drone
To be honest SSCL are beyond bad. I work in the civil service and they messed up a load of people's pay here that they've had to pay compensation - quite a few people got hundreds of pounds each. Can't remember why exactly but that situation had to be pretty extreme for that to happen.
Most things seeem to be ok with them for me but as far as I can tell moving teams/jobs they just can't cope with. They must have an escalation process - follow it!
I'm not clear if she's actually missed a payday.
If so, her boss/strand should be making this their number one thing to do (after drinking tea).
Not being all STW, but this isn't your wife's battle - the chain of command is. Does she know the SCS in her previous role? They carry the most effective/swift clout and would be my port of call in this situation, both via informal distress call and official email from her new strand's G6, or SCS if possible (but appreciate she may not want to cause a fuss, but this is priority stuff, so nobody will mind at all)
However if she is SCS, it's a test 🙂
well they are going to have a problem when she stops coming in to work and a bigger one when they get hauled to a tribunal...but as already mentioned her boss on both new and old departments have not managed to get anywhere- they all have the same contact number and no one has managed to be able to get beyond the call centre
any outcome to this?
I'd probably suggest depending on seniority it's one of those that the quickest fix will be to go with the boss and camp out in the HR directors )or senior HR person) office until they call the right people and fix it.
what mike says.
i moved departments back in december and did not get paid for december or january.
in december they promised it would be in my januaries pay.... in january i didnt get paid for either.
camped out in HR office until it landed in my bank account that same day - siting that i didnt know how i was going to pay my mortgage or the bills this month as i didnt have enough in the bank to cover it (which was a lie) but they know at that point their liable for your losses if they ****ed up.
😯
How are organizations like this allowed to exist?
oldnpastit - MemberHow are organizations like this allowed to exist?
Because like a lot of firms the Civil Service think it is more cost effective to contract out services and reduce their own staff. Many Civil Servants work in departments they know nothing about, just followrocedures or create new ones.
MrsT is one of those people
oldnpastit - Member
How are organizations like this allowed to exist?
as Trekster put it it's mostly mis management of a lot of things.
Probably head of something works out how much time is spent doing payroll, gets them to sumarise the tasks and workflow. Gets a tender which comes in cheaper. Except during the process of writing stuff down some of the unique features of the screwed up system are missed which means they are not in the plan to move across, so the new lot have no idea what is going on. Lots of lack of communication and discussions about variations and trying to work out how x moves to y when Margret who set it all up is now off to her nice retirement cottage in the Cotswolds having put all her notes in the bin on the way to collect the cheque. Bad contacts are mostly due to bad management
Do please make sure that your MP hears about this. It's a colossal mess-up, you should keep a log of any bank charges etc levied upon you and your wife due to late payment of salaries.
It sounds as though the contractor is woefully under-resourced. Your wife's employer should have a Service Level Agreement with SSCL, which will detail response times and the agreed minimum service delivery.
It sounds as though the contractor is woefully under-resourced. Your wife's employer should have a Service Level Agreement with SSCL, which will detail response times and the agreed minimum service delivery.
Or the people issuing the contract screwed up the spec and tender....
Whilst the contractor appears to have messed up, its worth going back to the head of her organisation, the contractual relationship is with them.