It's not me, it's them!!

Last week I went in to the place I used to work to pick up the paperwork associated with my redundancy. When I met with the boss, he gave me lots of smiles and made - what I'm sure he thought were - appropriate noises of sympathy followed by the comment, "You're moving very stiffly, are you sure you're alright?" After assuring him that I could probably last through the course of the meeting before collapsing, he then proceeded to pay close attention to his computer while he printed out the paperwork. I was expecting to receive a formal letter outlining the reasons for the redundancy, the terms of the redundancy, and some form of expression of regret - or to put it another way, words trying to justify their actions. Silly me..!!

What I received was a single piece of paper with four separate, one sentence paragraphs, telling me I had agreed to their proposal of the 27th May 2013, and that my last day of work was to be 7th June 2013. One of the paragraphs explained to me, in one sentence, that even though the 3rd of June was a public holiday the company was being magnanimous and paying me sick leave for this particular day. This piece of paper wasn't on letterhead, nor was it dated; but it did have a place for signatories with my name printed as one of them. When I told the manager I would take it away with me unsigned, I got a look. Knowing what I know now, it was probably a look of fear - where this guy sees himself being reprimanded, and being held accountable for his words and actions in an Employment Relations mediation meeting.

Hang on, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I then ask if he might possibly be able to give me a copy of the Employment Contract I had signed in April. "Don't you already have a copy?" is the response.
"No!" say I.
What follows is something in the manner of a dance around the office, where this guy is looking in filing cabinets, desk drawers, his briefcase and under various stacks of paper hoping that my copy of the Employment Contract will magically appear. When this doesn't happen he assures me that he will arrange for a copy for me straight away. So I wander off happy in the knowledge that everybody has my best interests at heart.

A couple of days later, I've received, read and re-read my Employment Contract - compared their redundancy offerings with the contract requirements and come to the realisation that they are shortchanging me two weeks worth of wages. So I put my superpower to good use and write them a very professional looking letter, where I explain the error they've made, and kindly ask them to reconsider their redundancy offer. This letter was sent to them on Monday afternoon.

Tuesday night - ten minutes past eight - the phone rings. It's for me...! It's never for me. This time of night it's got to be one of my wife's mates. Anyway, I say hello and some guy then tells me his name and starts apologising for the error he's made and that the company will make sure it's corrected and I will definitely receive my full redundancy entitlement, and on and on he goes. After listening to this guy apologise over and over for a couple of hours (... well it felt like it) I interrupt - quite rudely - and ask him who he is. Turns out, this guy is a contractor who provides HR advice and documentation to this company and he was the person who wrote the four sentence, four paragraph piece of paper in the first place.

So. Thinking this through, and using my cynic's glasses to get an overview of this whole affair, it now seems that this company has gone to some lengths to contract themselves out of Human Resource responsibilities and accountability. Looking back, it is very doubtful that this HR contractor was ever told of the circumstances of my redundancy, bit simply instructed to put the process in motion based on the subsequent changes to my duties at work.

So now I've got another decision to make. Should I go and have a chat with a Department of Labour dude?

Who's responsible? The company or the contractor?

Should I care? Am I focused in the wrong direction? I've got an MRI and a specialist's appointment next week.

I know what some of you think but I'd be interested in your feedback.