OFFERS – UPDATE 2
BANK MANDATES – FORMER EMPLOYEES
First an apology as I gave out some incorrect information. I thought that if you were still using the same bank account as that used by GCC to pay your salary that it wouldn’t matter if you didn’t complete a bank mandate.
I was wrong.
The council does not retain the bank information for ex employees
So former employees ALL HAVE TO COMPLETE A MANDATE.
Unfortunately more than 500 of you ticked the wrong box and didn’t provide a bank mandate. Karl knows who you are and where you live!
This means that Karl is having to create a new software programme to enable him to send out new mandates. This is going to take until the end of this week he believes – so new mandates will be sent but there will be a delay in sorting this for you. Our apologies if the document wasn’t clear enough. We didn’t spot this problem until it was too late.
RECALCULATIONS AND OFFER CHECKS
Many of you who didnt like your offers, because you thought your hours were wrong,or because it was so much less than last time, have asked for the calculations to be redone or for a more detailed explanation.
This will need to be requested through your representatives.
But for A4ES Karl is the only one who can do this and he has other urgent stuff that needs to be done (see above).
This means that it will take some time before he is able to turn to this task. The poor man isn’t sleeping enough as it is and we don’t want to overburden him any more. SO PLEASE BE PATIENT – these recalculations will not be done until next week and there are hundreds to do.
I need to warn you that it is highly unlikely that the offers will change and this will delay payment, but we don’t want you signing and regretting the decision. So we are happy to do this task but, as I say, it will take time.
I had told some people that we would try and reply in 24-48 hours. I was unaware of the scale of the problem, so I again apologise for this misinformation.
TRUST DEEDS.
Unfortunately we were unaware of the numbers of people with trust deeds until literally last Friday. This means that people with deeds still expected to receive their offers but were told at the last minute that the offers had been withdrawn, which has caused a great deal of distress, for which we are sorry.
The reason that the council is so animated about this subject, is that last time there were a number of people who didnt tell the council that they had a deed and didnt tell their Trustee that they had had an offer (a breach of their trust terms). The trustees then sued the council and succeeded. So the council doesnt want to get caught out again.
Trust deeds are publicly registered and the council checked the register at the last minute and identified a large number of additional trusts. In addition the Trustees,when they heard that payments were being made, contacted the council last week and notified them of more Trusts. These offers were also withdrawn.
Regrettably the public register is nor up to date and the list included some people that have finished their trust. As the council are not sure who this applies to, they withdrew all the offers and required proof that the trust was at an end.
To add to the misery, although the council withdrew the offers, they have not yet sent the offers to the Trustees. So the people affected are contacting their Trustees but the Trustees have no information as the council hasn’t contacted them. This has left a lot of people in the dark and understandably frustrated and angry.
On top of this there is literally only one person in the council authorised to make decisions in respect of the trust deeds and that person has gone on holiday for 3 weeks. ( it is the school holidays, of course, and they have a family so its understandable). But this leaves all these people still in the dark for at least another 3 weeks.
This is particularly frustrating for those whose trust is at an end, who need to be able to prove it, but the council will not be able to review the proof and re issue the offers until the officer returns.
I also need to emphasis the fact that if you signed a trust deed, you signed a legally binding agreement to transfer all your property and rights (including your equal pay rights ) to the Trustee. Strictly speaking the offer belongs to them, not you. The trust deed is good if there is no money coming into the account but very bad if there is a lump sum, like an equal pay settlement. Of course the Trustees don’t make this clear on signing which is very unfortunate.
This doesnt mean that you are not entitled to know what’s happening, you are, and we are happy to give you information on what the offer will have been. However, it may be that the offer will have to be recalculated as deductions may have been wrong. Such recalculation wont, again, take place until the officer returns.
DECEASED CLAIMANTS
Those relatives who are still waiting for an offer for their deceased family members will also have to wait as the officer on holiday who is dealing with the Trust Claims, is also dealing with the deceased claimants. To be fair this is a very difficult set of issues including who is entitled and what evidence is needed. We have already had one inter family dispute arise this week. These things are often more complicated than it first appears so,again, PLEASE B
BE PATIENT.
BIG THANKS
I just wanted to say thank you for all the positive messages here and on messenger. They mean a lot, and even if I haven’t responded please be aware that Karl and I really appreciate them.
As always I will try and monitor the comments and respond to direct messages