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Hello there.
I live in Japan, and more than 6 months ago, I was browsing for employment opportunities outside of Japan where I could work remotely.
I found one UK company that caught my eye, and it seemed like a nice place. I had an online interview, and in fact I had the opportunity to talk face to face with the CEO because he was in Japan for business.
Even thou the salary was a little bit lower than my previous job, I took the job for the opportunity to work in what seemed like a really fun and rewarding project.
The reality was really different thou.
After being bullied and constantly insulted after I entered the job, and I foolishly tried to keep up with this, because I really thought the project itself was really good, in the end it was too much for me and ended up sending my 2 week notice.
The day after I sent my 2 week notice, the CEO sent me a mail telling me that I was terminated because of "gross misconduct".
In the end, he used that as a bargain chip so that we would reach a "mutual termination agreement" so that I would immediately leave the company without the 2 weeks.
As shady as this was, I was just happy to leave the place, and I sent my last 2 invoices to the company, which included travel fees I had to undertake at the request of the company.
To make the story short, they never paid those 2 last invoices.
At first, they told me that until they received equipment I had from the company (equipment I was sent by the company to work with), they would put my 2 invoices on hold (even thou, one of those was for the previous month, which had nothing to do with termination), and it seemed extremely shady because it would take way more time for them to get the equipment than what the actual due-date of one of the invoices was.
I sent the equipment, sent the confirmation that I sent the equipment, and told them not to ignore the due date of the invoice, but they did and never paid.
I even made an offer to defer part of the first invoice to the second invoice, or after the equipment reached their hands, but they ignored all offers and even thou they told me they would be in contact with me, they cut all contact.
After I knew they had received the equipment I kept sending them mails, without much success.
It started to seem obvious they weren't willing to pay, so in desperation, I wrote a review in their Google Maps entry, saying that the company owed me money, which was a fact.
After that I received a mail from the CEO telling me that somehow that violated our NDA (I checked, it didn't), and I even made an offer to modify the review in a way that wouldn't constitute a violation as they thought, but then changed his claim that it was libel, and I had to take down the review "or else". Told them that I would remove the review after I was paid, but then I got a letter from the company lawyers offering me to pay me what they owed me ONLY IF i agreed to "never say anything that could be constructed as negative about the company" under the threat of having to pay over 10,000 pounds if I ever did.
This basically meant that just telling my experience of this company will constitute as a violation of the agreement, and it would let this guy to continue to harass me and probably stalk me indifferently.
I told them I would never sign an agreement like that for money they already owed me, but removed the review just to show good faith, hoping that it would help somehow for me to get paid, but to the contrary, then came threats saying that if I didn't agreed to it, then they would sue me for defamation and "damages".
I ignored all threats, since they were baseless, and told them that if they didn't payed me within 2 weeks, I would go to small court claims.
They ignored my mails, even the one that was meant to be in compliance with the "Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct", telling them I was willing to consider any other system of Alternative Dispute Resolution they put forward, but they never said anything.
So I started 2 claims, one for each invoice, in the small claims system MCOL, which in total was for over 4000 gbp.
After that, I've received about 2 different threats from the CEO, telling me to drop the claims "or else", first saying that my claims where illegitimate because I don't live in the UK, and I was "lying to the court" which is a "serious crime", and that he would report me unless I dropped the claims. (I put all my info, including my current Japan address in the claim, and made a friend of mine my correspondence address, which should be sufficient for people not living in the UK according to the MCOL guide), he also claimed he was going to sue me in Japan for "damages" and legal costs of all of this if I didn't dropped the claim, telling me that if I did dropped it, he would pay me what he owes me "minus damages", whatever that means, which of course, I was not willing to accept.
I know, from what I've been hearing from other ex-employees and ex-associates of the CEO, is that this guy is extremely litigious, and likes to just extend things and harass people using the legal system, even if he ends up loosing money.
Also the company filed "acknowledgment of services" for the 2 claims, meaning they will probably try to fight my claims with I don't know what logic, probably trying to look for technicalities that could invalidate my claims, or just elongate the fight for as long as posible, possibly doing a counter claim for the "damages" or "defamation" as he keeps claiming I owe them for "dealing with the Google Review" or something along those lines.
And here I am. My main concern is that I don't live in the UK, which means that if this goes to court, unless I waste about 1000 gbp just in transportation, I won't be able to even go to the hearing, and the fact that I have to go for months without this money, which means that I had to make use of my savings just to stay alive for the 2 months he owed me.
I would like to hear any suggestion or anything that could help to with this. And also, I would like to ask if there is no way to take some other more aggressive action against this company, for all of the harassment and lack of moral integrity and probably illegal behavior they have been showing.
I live in Japan, and more than 6 months ago, I was browsing for employment opportunities outside of Japan where I could work remotely.
I found one UK company that caught my eye, and it seemed like a nice place. I had an online interview, and in fact I had the opportunity to talk face to face with the CEO because he was in Japan for business.
Even thou the salary was a little bit lower than my previous job, I took the job for the opportunity to work in what seemed like a really fun and rewarding project.
The reality was really different thou.
After being bullied and constantly insulted after I entered the job, and I foolishly tried to keep up with this, because I really thought the project itself was really good, in the end it was too much for me and ended up sending my 2 week notice.
The day after I sent my 2 week notice, the CEO sent me a mail telling me that I was terminated because of "gross misconduct".
In the end, he used that as a bargain chip so that we would reach a "mutual termination agreement" so that I would immediately leave the company without the 2 weeks.
As shady as this was, I was just happy to leave the place, and I sent my last 2 invoices to the company, which included travel fees I had to undertake at the request of the company.
To make the story short, they never paid those 2 last invoices.
At first, they told me that until they received equipment I had from the company (equipment I was sent by the company to work with), they would put my 2 invoices on hold (even thou, one of those was for the previous month, which had nothing to do with termination), and it seemed extremely shady because it would take way more time for them to get the equipment than what the actual due-date of one of the invoices was.
I sent the equipment, sent the confirmation that I sent the equipment, and told them not to ignore the due date of the invoice, but they did and never paid.
I even made an offer to defer part of the first invoice to the second invoice, or after the equipment reached their hands, but they ignored all offers and even thou they told me they would be in contact with me, they cut all contact.
After I knew they had received the equipment I kept sending them mails, without much success.
It started to seem obvious they weren't willing to pay, so in desperation, I wrote a review in their Google Maps entry, saying that the company owed me money, which was a fact.
After that I received a mail from the CEO telling me that somehow that violated our NDA (I checked, it didn't), and I even made an offer to modify the review in a way that wouldn't constitute a violation as they thought, but then changed his claim that it was libel, and I had to take down the review "or else". Told them that I would remove the review after I was paid, but then I got a letter from the company lawyers offering me to pay me what they owed me ONLY IF i agreed to "never say anything that could be constructed as negative about the company" under the threat of having to pay over 10,000 pounds if I ever did.
This basically meant that just telling my experience of this company will constitute as a violation of the agreement, and it would let this guy to continue to harass me and probably stalk me indifferently.
I told them I would never sign an agreement like that for money they already owed me, but removed the review just to show good faith, hoping that it would help somehow for me to get paid, but to the contrary, then came threats saying that if I didn't agreed to it, then they would sue me for defamation and "damages".
I ignored all threats, since they were baseless, and told them that if they didn't payed me within 2 weeks, I would go to small court claims.
They ignored my mails, even the one that was meant to be in compliance with the "Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct", telling them I was willing to consider any other system of Alternative Dispute Resolution they put forward, but they never said anything.
So I started 2 claims, one for each invoice, in the small claims system MCOL, which in total was for over 4000 gbp.
After that, I've received about 2 different threats from the CEO, telling me to drop the claims "or else", first saying that my claims where illegitimate because I don't live in the UK, and I was "lying to the court" which is a "serious crime", and that he would report me unless I dropped the claims. (I put all my info, including my current Japan address in the claim, and made a friend of mine my correspondence address, which should be sufficient for people not living in the UK according to the MCOL guide), he also claimed he was going to sue me in Japan for "damages" and legal costs of all of this if I didn't dropped the claim, telling me that if I did dropped it, he would pay me what he owes me "minus damages", whatever that means, which of course, I was not willing to accept.
I know, from what I've been hearing from other ex-employees and ex-associates of the CEO, is that this guy is extremely litigious, and likes to just extend things and harass people using the legal system, even if he ends up loosing money.
Also the company filed "acknowledgment of services" for the 2 claims, meaning they will probably try to fight my claims with I don't know what logic, probably trying to look for technicalities that could invalidate my claims, or just elongate the fight for as long as posible, possibly doing a counter claim for the "damages" or "defamation" as he keeps claiming I owe them for "dealing with the Google Review" or something along those lines.
And here I am. My main concern is that I don't live in the UK, which means that if this goes to court, unless I waste about 1000 gbp just in transportation, I won't be able to even go to the hearing, and the fact that I have to go for months without this money, which means that I had to make use of my savings just to stay alive for the 2 months he owed me.
I would like to hear any suggestion or anything that could help to with this. And also, I would like to ask if there is no way to take some other more aggressive action against this company, for all of the harassment and lack of moral integrity and probably illegal behavior they have been showing.
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