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| Monday, April 30, 2007 |
| Mr Ata battles ineffectively against the tyrannical forces of HR |
We are in preparatory mode. Aside from emptying drawers, preparing to sell off my Phantom comics, and planning who to loan Mr Ata's Very Expensive Speakers to, this means getting the paperwork in order.
To assist with our HSMP application, we have engaged the services of a third party. Yes, it costs money and we could just fill it all out ourselves - but the fees for submitting the application are expensive enough that we want to do it right the first time. And there is a LOT of paperwork, and stern warnings in the instructions that the British High Commission will reject out-of-hand anyone who submits the wrong stuff/not enough of the right stuff/stuff that gives conflicting evidence/stuff that looks forged.
Herein lies a little problem. We want to submit the application before the end of June, which means Mr Ata will not have received his yearly payment summary - that's a group certificate in Australian. They're issued at the end of the financial year - June 30 - or thereabouts. So we have to submit his paylsips as evidence of earnings instead. One would think this was not a problem.
However, on review, we discovered several things:
(1) Mr Ata's payslips from his last employer look... well, kind of forged. Because they were supplied as online documents that he printed himself. No worries, the HSMP instructions have covered this. He has to get the payslips authenticated by the issuing company.
(2) One payslip doesn't show a taxable gross amount.
(3) To ensure that all bases are covered, we also requested a letter from the company stating his total earnings for a specified period, covering part of last financial year and most of this financial year.
This is where it gets fun. Payroll have bluntly refused to authenticate the payslips, insisting that they have the company logo & ABN and this is enough. Well... it's not. They have to be stamped and signed. AND one of them doesn't even have the company logo. On querying (2) with the company, they said - don't worry, it was a glitch and we fixed it and it'll show up fine on your yearly payment summary. Again, not good enough. We need the PAYSLIPS, NOW, with the RIGHT AMOUNTS showing on them! Okay, payroll isn't my area of expertise, but I'm fairly certain that it's a legal requirement for a company to provide complete payslips to their employees. And the error on this payslip affects every payslip after it.
With regard to (3), Mr Ata went to the trouble of drafting a letter stating the necessary information... and here I quote: "Please be advised that the letter cannot be filled out and signed, this letter is not produced by Payroll, if the company who is requesting the information can send us a form to fill out directly we would be able to provide this details."
What the? Mr Ata cannot send a draft letter for them to confirm & sign showing HIS OWN INFORMATION, but ANOTHER COMPANY can send a form asking for it & they'll happily supply the info?
Here's the thing: Mr Ata turns 32 on the 2nd of July. After 32, you don't get extra credit on the HSMP criteria for your age, and you have to show rather a lot more under the earnings criteria to make up for it. Now, we think that if the correct amounts were shown on the payslips, he would have enough earnings to mean that he didn't need the extra points for being under 32 (it's because of the redundancy payout - part of it can count towards earnings). BUT because we don't have the correct payslips NOW, we can't be sure of exactly what they show. If we wait to receive the payment summary, we won't need the payslips (you only need to give one or the other) BUT he might qualify... or he might not. If we put the application in now, he'll qualify - but all the supporting documentation needs to be correct & consistent. Frickit. Either way we need the payslips corrected, we need them authenticated, and surely a letter saying "We paid him this much" isn't too much of an ask? The letter we might be able to do without IF we can get everything else we need, and just now, they're not being too helpful. You know the most frustrating thing? I can't do anything about it. I can't ring the payroll office & set them straight. All I can do is offer helpful advice about what to put in the emails to make what we need clear.
And the office is located interstate, so I can't even go in & break some kneecaps. |
posted by Ata @ 6:32 pm  |
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| 1 Comments: |
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Any progress? I hate bureaucracy.
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Any progress? I hate bureaucracy.