This was our fastest-fought dispute so far. It took eight days for the group to
submit a letter of request, and the former veterinary hospital employee receivedthe money. As in the latter case , we have now succeeded even before the disputehas entered the public phase, as the employer has paid the amount due within theset deadline. Thank you to everyone who came to support the employee during thehandover and was about to get involved in the upcoming solidarity campaign! Inthe following article, you will find more information about the dispute and theinterview. If you have a problem with unpaid money and you want to actively solveit, contact us.ISSUELucia worked as a doctor at a veterinary hospital. She received money for herwork on the basis of a mandate agreement. She received one part of her "salary"on the basis of an invoice, which she issued for a fixed amount of € 700 eachmonth. The second part consisted of the sum for various operations, the sale offodder and night services, for which it had surcharges.Problems with her employer (more precisely, the client) occurred in September,when she was to receive money for work done in August, which was also her lastmonth in the company. According to the manager, the reasons for non-payment werebasically two. The first was that she did not return some company items (such askeys or stamp), but she had an agreement with him that it would be enough if hereturned them during September. The second reason was to openly circumvent notonly the current practice, but also the contract itself. The manager began toclaim that Lucia was not entitled to € 700 because she had not worked enoughhours, and tried to "legalize" this claim by an amendment to the contract, whichshe refused to sign. She sent the manager an extensive explanation, which shewrote to her lawyer, adding that if she did not pay the invoice she was due, shewould start to claim interest on arrears.Another complication occurred on October 1, when she returned all companybelongings and there really was nothing to prevent the payment of the amountowed. The manager suddenly came up with the idea that Lucia still had to pay analiquot of the amount of work clothes, but did not state how he calculated it.Lucia has had enough in the last month and on October 7 she decided to contactour union.PREPARATIONS FOR THE DISPUTEAfter a joint examination of all documents and communication, we concluded thatwe could win a possible dispute. Now the main task was to determine the amountowed. The fixed amount was clear, but Lucia had to get to the sums for actionsand other things first. It was not impossible, but it was time consuming, as sheno longer worked for the company and could not view the system statements on herown. In the meantime, we agreed that Lucia would still try to ask the manager toexplain the aliquot calculation for the garment, as its amount did not makesense. She sent the first e-mail on 13 October and a comment on 20 October,adding that if the amount calculation was not sent by 22 October, she wouldconsider the whole amount irrelevant. Paradoxically, shortly after sending thecomment, she received the first part of the debt - a fixed amount of € 700. (Itwas 48 days after the invoice, respectively. 19 days after the last corporateitems were handed over.) However, the payment of this amount was not related tothe sent comment and was purely a coincidence. There was no guarantee that thecompany would pay the remaining few hundred euros, especially when we saw how themanager (does not) communicate. And since the manager did not respond to thecomment, on Monday, October 25, we decided to submit a letter of request directlyin the company.COLLECTIVE SUBMISSION OF THE REQUESTLETTER We wanted to hand over the letter to the responsible person, ie themanager. Although he works in the company as a veterinarian, it was not certainthat we would find him during working hours. Therefore, we insured that oneperson pretended to be a customer and arranged a meeting on Monday evening.That's when Lucia and the other people who came to support her entered theveterinary clinic.Lucia asked the receptionist to call the manager that she wanted to deal with themoney she owed. The first message was that we should wait two minutes. After morethan two minutes, a second attempt followed. This time the receptionist said shewas on the phone. Although we did not plan to stay longer and we had Plan B inreserve for such a situation, the atmosphere was pleasant and we were quitecurious whether the manager is just pulling our noses or has really urgent duties(even though at that time he had wait for a fictitious customer). After a fewminutes, Lucia told the receptionist if she would try again, or she would have tohand over a letter to her manager. The receptionist returned with the messagethat Lucia could either go to his outpatient clinic alone or stop by the managerthe next morning.The 8-day deadline (until November 2) for the disbursement of money began, afterwhich we planned to launch the open public dispute phase.FAST VICTORYOn Wednesday, October 27, we received an e-mail from the manager, in which hefinally explained the calculation of the aliquot part for work clothes and askedfor an invoice. Lucia accepted the calculation and the amount and on October 28the company was sent an invoice for the outstanding amount of € 441.50. Thedeadline for payment remained on November 2 and the company complied with it.Lucia received all the money she owed that day. After a lengthy individualcommunication with the company, one collective action and the threat of a disputewas enough, and we achieved a quick solution to the problem.We are pleased with the short time that the money has been paid out, but whetherthe disputes last for a short time or longer, they are always a school of mutualassistance between workers. They confirm that if we want to achieve something, wemust stick together. And they show that we can really do it.INTERVIEWAfter the dispute, we asked Lucia for an interview in which we were interested inhow she perceived the dispute. We also briefly focused on veterinary work as such. * At first, she tried to solve the problem with the money she had with a lawyerand considered a pre-litigation call. In the end, however, she decided to contactour union and use direct action tactics instead of the courts. Can you tell uswhy you made that decision?The lawyer himself dismissed me from the court solution, as it would take a yearor two. I was familiar with your activities, even at the first doubt, whether Iwould receive money from the company, I considered contacting you with a lovedone. Before contacting me, I wanted to test how they would respond to thepre-litigation call, and a lawyer, for whom it was also not easy to go throughsuch a chaotic mandate agreement, helped me a lot, especially at this point. * Did people around you know that you wanted to fight for money owed and evenin court? If so, how did they react?They knew, some with a lush imagination immediately imagined demonstratingstanding and shouting in front of the company's headquarters, so they tended toadvise me to go to court. On the contrary, from a closer circle of the family,they liked this way of direct action and, last but not least, my partner was verysupportive and helpful. * One of our conditions was that you would be active in the dispute and that wewould not do things for you. We must emphasize your commitment and cooperation inpreparing the dispute. Nevertheless, we want to ask if you did not have anyworries, uncertainties or doubts, or if you imagined some things differently,whether something surprised or surprised you ...I read the handbook "How we dealt with problems at work", where you summarizedyour disputes for the period 2015-2019. This was very helpful, I could betterimagine how the dispute could escalate. In my case, everything went quitesmoothly, mainly thanks to you. At the beginning, when I sought the help of alawyer, I gave myself two points, and that is that I will not take it tragicallyand that it will be a valuable experience, no matter how it ends. After all,doing somewhere for free for a whole month freezes. * She recalled that the use of mandates in veterinary practice is very common.Does it have anything to do with the existence of the Chamber of VeterinarySurgeons of the Slovak Republic and, in essence, the forced trade?A veterinarian who decides to carry out a private veterinary activity mustregister with the Chamber, which will subsequently assign him an ID number and beregistered as a self-employed person, a so-called professional trade. One of theconditions for registration with the Chamber is that the person is not in a civilservice, employment relationship or other similar employment relationship, nordoes he perform any other gainful activity in the field of veterinary care otherthan pedagogical, journalistic, literary and scientific. So yes, we don't reallyhave much choice. * Do you think that mandate contracts outweigh employment contracts?I don't think they can match them. The mandate contract is governed by theCommercial Code, ergo in court has an agent (employee of the company) and client(company manager) equal status, the agent is not protected by law as an employeeunder the Labor Code. Nowhere is it defined how many hours a trustee can work ina given month, so they follow their mandate contract, and it is the company'smanagers who often abuse it and you may actually work 192 hours, you have amaximum limit of 184 in the contract, and since nothing protects you, you canonly hope that you will negotiate it with your boss / manager. * Our last question is related to a problem we often encounter. The disputerequires people to prepare for what it takes to find time. At the same time,however, they usually already have a new job or are looking for it. Another thingis that they are not used to confronting someone who has or has some power overthem. There is probably no universal answer or advice, but can you think ofanything to advise people who have not received their pay?Hehe, probably just such a universal answer: to turn all the anger and annoyanceinto active activity, to realize who is maintaining the illegal situation thatthe former employer caused in the first place, and I guess the most importantthing is not to underestimate the collective power. Just knowing that otherpeople are interested in my problem at work adds strength and motivation to facethe problem.- - -If you have problems at work and you want to actively solve them, you can contactus at one of our contacts . If our activities are close to you and you want todevelop them in your area, fill in the questionnairehttps://www.priamaakcia.sk/zapoj-sa .Union Direct ActionRelated articles:How we dealt with problems at work: Disputes of the Association Direct Action inthe years 2015-2019International Week against Non -Payment of Wages (October 11-17, 2021)Aims and Principles of the Association Direct Actionhttps://www.priamaakcia.sk/Zvaz-Priama-akcia-uspel-v-dalsom-spore-o-nevyplatenu-odmenu-rozhovor-s-pracovnickou-.html_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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