Advice needed - Green Stewards

[TalkShow Bob]

The whole deposit thing really pisses me off and for some companies it is nothing but a money spinner. Firstly you have to remember that the festival is paying them to provide the stewards. Then they will take a deposit often for £200 and hold it for up to 6 months. It seems standard practice now to take an admin fee off when it is refunded which is often over £20. Any deposit held back is kept by the company not given to the festival. Essentially the workers end up paying for the running costs of the company.

I have seen some dodgy practices. One company relies on the deposits to help with the running costs to set up for the season and once did not get paid by the festival on time so was unable to refund. When I cancelled at short notice they kept the deposit. They claimed it was in the T&C of our contract. When I took it to court I won as the judge said the only way they could hold the deposit was if they had given be a pass, which they didn't. Hell I once saw one girl turn up for work pissed. They not only said they were keeping her deposit shut cut off her wristband and had her escorted off site. Kerching!!

[Rufus Gwertigan]

There is a lot of assumptions in this:

How do you know it doesnt go to the festival? On a surprising number of cases it dose.

The only deductions I know of people making are either deducting an amount for equipment losses (which are passed on from the event), an amount for a missed shift or fees incurred for example paypal. Its by no means an industry standard to deduct an admin fee for handling the deposit.

Yes they hold onto the deposit for a long time in a lot of cases but thats to do with how the deposit is held. They are held in similar mechanisms to how ticket sales are held by companies like see. They are bonded away from the company and only accessible at certain points, never actually being part of the companys assets. These sort of accounts bare next to no interest and have very rigid T&Cs attached.

[TalkShow Bob]

Not assumptions but fact. I was involved with a few companies doing dodgy practices. When I took one to court they stated that they kept the deposit. Another I was asked to tell people not to cash their cheques as the company had not been paid.

Edited August 29, 2013 by TalkShow Bob

[russycarps]

Assumptions extrapelated up from limited experiance. You make it sound like this is industry standard nut its not. The ones I work with wouldnt be caught in situations like that. You make it sound likes its endemic to the industry. Its not. Simple as. Sounds like you have had two bad experiances but its not how most let alone all operate.

[TalkShow Bob]

Just give them back their money mate

[5co77ie]

It would appear Green Stewards are now paying up deposits.

[themuel]

Looks like this is all heading in a better direction.

[Katster]

Thankyou very much for the address. @Katster were you originally told you would not be getting your deposit back?

[kaosmark2]

Sorted:

Thanks for letting us know. Your deposit will be fast tracked back to you. You were initially marked into BBB shift and then moved to AA. I can see from the AA records that you did everything perfectly. Your entry on the BBB shift was not deleted and show showed you as not showing up for shifts. Sincere apologies, this kind of error has never happened before SGP this year and we've fixed it so that it can't happen again. Thanks for your patience.

Regards

Edited September 2, 2013 by kaosmark2

[TalkShow Bob]

Reads like the begining is what they put in and the last part is automated from the system when they return the deposit?

[Spindles]

Indeed. In my last job when we processed a refund the system sent an email which applied for the majority of, but not all, situations.

[kaosmark2]

Yeah, I'm sure that last bit is automated, but still cheeky!

[Katster]

Glad you got it sorted. Understandable that they could make a mistake and they have rectified it fairly quickly. I've had my deposit back

[MyNameIs]

Got my deposit back now. They said that I was put on two different shift patterns or something. Who knows whether they were trying to pull a fast one or not. Best of luck to everyone still waiting and thanks for the help

[lovehate]

Maybe it was a mistake?

[russycarps]

Maybe it was a mistake?

[Katster]

I've never heard of anything like this before with green stewards russycarps. However, I do know that green stewards never got all the stewards they needed this year and a lot of us got 7 hour shifts instead of 6 (I'm guessing to cover the short fall?). I'm talking purely SGP here by the way.

[kaosmark2]

I've never heard of anything like this before with green stewards russycarps. However, I do know that green stewards never got all the stewards they needed this year and a lot of us got 7 hour shifts instead of 6 (I'm guessing to cover the short fall?). I'm talking purely SGP here by the way.

[Katster]

Actually, it seems I haven't had the deposit back yet, the money I'd thought was that was something else...

[Katster]

Makes you think they'd make an effort to keep the people that did work for them happy so they'd go back next year.

[TalkShow Bob]

maybe it'd be better if you made a username GreenStewards or something and explained exactly what happened here, rather than offering little snippets like that anonymously?

I suspect your company struggles financially, primarily with cash flow, and hanging on to these deposits in this way helped pay the bills that month. It's not a sustainable business model.

[russycarps]

Paranoid much? You seem to think anyone who says anything that isn't against Greenstewards must be an employee...

Edited September 9, 2013 by russycarps

[kaosmark2]

If you're not against them, you're with them.

[TalkShow Bob]

That reply is, to the letter, what a greensteward would say.

[russycarps]

I don't think it is. But even if it was just because someone speaks trusting the company dosent mean they work for them. Same as when I spoke up for the industry (which I do work in, but not for them) I didn't work for them.