Dont Work For On Assignment!

[Tiny_Tank]

Below is a copy of a complaint letter that was sent to On Assignments Human Resources department detailing my biggest negative experience with them.

Mrs. Angela Kolakek~

My name Jason XXXXXX, I was formerly employed with On Assignment Lab Support from September 10th, 2007 until January 28th, 2008. I worked on both Christmas Day and New Years Day. I was told I should receive holiday pay for both of these days provided I had met the requirements of working at least 450 hours the 12 weeks prior to the holiday. When I received my paychecks for each of these respective weeks I was not paid for either holiday. I then contacted my then recruiter named Sherry Mabray questioning why I wasn’t paid for these holidays. She forwarded an email to me saying that her payroll department showed I needed 102.75 more hours to be qualified. When this didn’t seem at all right to me, I responded informing them that on my paychecks my YTD hours for regular hours worked were above the required 450 hours, to which I was forwarded another email from a different person in the payroll department giving me a new number of 78.25 hours needed to qualify for holiday pay as calculated from the dates of week ending 10/07/2007 until week ending 10/23/2007. To which I later found out that they had meant the second date to be 12/23/2007. I asked for a copy of their exact holiday pay policy to which I was given a copy of a page entitled “Benefits of Working for On Assignment” which stated as follows:
“On Assignment has six (6) paid holidays: New Years Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Employees who are currently on assignment and have worked 450 hours in the last 12 weeks immediately prior to the holiday are eligible to receive 8 hours of holiday pay at their current straight time hourly pay rate.”
After I gave a detailed summary of the situation I had experienced so far and being told that I was very upset about these experiences and trying to enquire further and gain a satisfactory explanation into why this situation had occurred, and was being handled in the way that it was, my recruiter offered a half-hearted apology about the amount of stress this had caused me and informed me that she would be forwarding a copy of my complaint to the payroll department. Their response was very disheartening. They told me that each holiday has a different start date due to the requirement being 12 weeks immediately prior to each holiday. And that for instance, Christmas, the period is between 10/07/07 and 12/23/07. Looking at my calendar and counting the weeks there were only 11 weeks or exactly 77 days from the start and end date they had given me, which was contrary to what On Assignment had told me and had stated in their official holiday policy. Doing the same thing for the second set dates that I was given for the New Years day holiday the same thing occurred. Only 11 weeks and not 12 weeks of my accrued hours were being counted which was inaccurately keeping me from requirements of holiday pay.
After more hassle from my recruiter I finally ended up calling On Assignments employee services line and informed them of my situation where I was told that not only had no note been made in my file but there was on record of my complaints or inquiries with my recruiter Sherry Mabray. I was also told that there was a resolution center to handle these kinds of issues and complaints to which I was never informed of before. Once my situation was sent to the resolution center I was called by Krista who informed me once again of the dates that they use to qualify as holiday pay and that I was short 78 hours as of the end of that period, and that they showed I had only worked 24 regular hours on one of the weeks that was in that period and 16 weekend pay hours, which they were not counting because they only count actual hours worked. I then told her that I had worked a total of 40 hours, I worked 24 regular hours on the week days, and I had worked 16 hours on the weekend Saturday and Sunday to which I received a weekend differential. I told Krista that I had worked 40 hours total, and that 24 of them were at a regular pay rate, and that 16 of them were at a weekend differential pay rate, but I still worked those 16 hours and that they should qualify toward the requirements. She seemed confused and I informed her that if she were to look at my paycheck she would see that I was paid for 40 hours in that week she was questioning. She told me she would get back to me, and after several hours finally informed me that after re-tallying my hours I was still short and that they would not be paying me anything else. I asked for the exact hours they had and the dates to which I was finally after much confusion told that the dates did in fact include the week ending 10//07/2007 but when they gave me the hours I worked they did not include it. The hours I worked were as follows for the weeks ending
10/14 40.25
10/21 36.50
10/28 41.00
11/4 37.75
11/11 41.25
11/18 40.00
11/25 38.50
12/2 40.00
12/9 39.75
12/16 40.25
12/23 39.75
This is not counting the 40.00 hours I worked the week ending 10/07/2007 which should have been counted.
So not only had On Assignment incorrectly chosen the period to calculate their requirements for holiday pay, as 11 weeks and not 12 weeks, that On Assignment themselves had stated in their official holiday pay policy, but they were also incorrectly calculating the actual hours I worked on their own timesheets as filled out exactly as I was instructed by On Assignment but they also chose not to include the hours I had worked on the weekend of that week just because I was getting paid a weekend differential for them and they didn’t consider that or overtime hours as actual hours worked. Apparently if you work on a weekend or if you are forced to work overtime that is not considered real work.
Secondly I would like to point out that not only does On Assignment’s “official holiday pay” policy, that they sent me when I started working for On Assignment as well as the copy they gave me when I requested a copy of their official holiday policy, not say anything about what hours are qualified in terms of regular, overtime, hours worked on a weekend that I’m receiving a different pay rate for or any other kind of hours that I myself put in and was paid for. But it by default in its wording shows that ALL hours should be counted regardless of the pay rate on those hours or whether they were worked on a week day or a weekend.
This situation has caused me great stress and immense frustration. It is unacceptable and unprofessional on many levels. The “customer service” I have encountered in trying to get an explanation and resolution to my problems has been met with nothing but incompetence and an unwillingness to give attention to the information that is being explained. I don’t feel it is unreasonable to ask for understanding, compassion or patience when dealing with these issues. An employer should be tolerant and friendly when dealing with issues and not assume that their employee is unintelligent in his knowledge and treat him with vocal tones of condescension and hostility. Unfortunately that is all that this employee received when trying to get this situation rectified and elucidated. I was cheated out of pay I deserve without a proper explanation other than what On Assignment considers how it wants to obligatorily qualify hours together to fit its best interest of saving money and having to pay its employees their due, without any consideration for proper employment practices.
One final note to this experience is that while I was at my place of employment working for On Assignment I spoke with others who worked there for On Assignment as well, and found out that one employee who only worked a partial week the week of New Years Day, filled out her time sheet with her hours worked as normal on all other days, but wrote in that they had worked 6 hours of overtime in the overtime column for that week, and they were paid what was the equivalent of holiday pay the way they had filled out the time sheet. Unfortunately being an honest and forthcoming person who is trying to do things the right way doesn’t always lead to an easy and satisfying end.

Sincerely,



Jason XXXXX


I appologize if this is not in the appropriate place, if someone could make sure it gets posted anywhere and everywhere they can and especially in the appropriate places and forums.