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OhioChick

(23,218 posts)
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 02:37 PM Oct 2015

Bank’s severance deal requires IT workers to be on call for two years

Employees said SunTrust requires laid-off IT workers to be available to help by phone or in person -- without additional pay

Editor's note: Four days after publication of this story, SunTrust eliminated the contentious severance clause cited by laid-off IT workers.

SunTrust Banks in Atlanta is laying off about 100 IT employees as it moves work offshore. But this layoff is unusual for what the employer is asking of its soon-to-be displaced workers: SunTrust's severance agreement requires terminated employees to remain available for two years to provide help if needed, including in-person assistance, and to do so without compensation.

Many of the affected IT employees, who are now training their replacements, have years of experience and provide the highest levels of technical support. The proof of their ability may be in the severance requirement, which gives the bank a way to tap their expertise long after their departure.

The bank's severance deal includes a "continuing cooperation" clause for a period of two years, where the employee agrees to "make myself reasonably available" to SunTrust "regarding matters in which I have been involved in the course of my employment with SunTrust and/or about which I have knowledge as a result of my employment at SunTrust."

More: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2994787/it-careers/bank-s-severance-deal-requires-it-workers-to-be-on-call-for-two-years.html

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hollysmom

(5,946 posts)
1. and yet politicians keep going with the fantasy that H1B's do not replace existing workers.
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 02:43 PM
Oct 2015

this bullshit has to end. We have to hold them all responsible. Not that my democratic senators listen to me about this, they are all corporate.

Frustratedlady

(16,254 posts)
2. That initial agreement had to take a lot of ballz.
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 02:49 PM
Oct 2015

It's bad enough the employees had to train their replacements, but to assist them without compensation? Good grief.

If I were in their place, I would come up with a new definition of "reasonably available" for sure.

ChromeFoundry

(3,270 posts)
3. These former employees should use the following script:
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 03:20 PM
Oct 2015

Did you check that all cables are securely connected to your computer?
I need you to unplug the computer and wait for sixty-seconds.
Now plug the computer back to the power source and wait for the system to complete the initialization sequence.
Do you see the logon prompt?
Please enter your username and password and try your task again.
[pause]
I am very sorry that that did not correct your problem.
I need you to unplug the computer again, but this time you will need to wait for five-hours before plugging it back in.
Feel free to call me if you have any other problems.
Thank you. Goodbye.

 

Thor_MN

(11,843 posts)
4. If a company were laying me off, and wanted me on-call for no pay, my "reasonably available" hours
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 06:27 PM
Oct 2015

would be between quarter to and half past fuck you o'clock. Any other time, it's twice what my pay was, 4 hour minimum.

 

Chan790

(20,176 posts)
5. That's par for the course for SunTrust.
Tue Oct 27, 2015, 09:17 PM
Oct 2015

Those are the same assholes that sent a compliance officer to follow me around for 3 weeks until I made something they could call a terminable error (I sued them and won; got UI as well) after I called the internal suspicious behavior and fraud line to report that my district manager was defrauding long-term mortgage clients, most of whose loans were FHA-backed.

Fucking thieves.

 

Chan790

(20,176 posts)
7. In the abstract.
Wed Oct 28, 2015, 08:32 AM
Oct 2015

The short version is that my DM in the midst of the mortgage crisis and Bush-era fiscal collapse was exploiting low-English-fluency clients in the late years of mortgages (we're talking principle left under $40K) by convincing them if they signed over their property they were about to default on immediately (e.g. "no, you don't have time to consult with a lawyer or financial adviser or find an interpreter...we're doing you a favor and I can't extend this offer forever&quot , the bank wouldn't come after them for the discrepancy if the property sold for less than the balance owed. There was no way it was going to though.

What was being left out of that was that area of NW DC (Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan, part of Dupont Circle) was one of the hottest urban real estate markets in the nation and homes that were selling for as little as $275K just 10 years earlier (when that neighborhood was a slum) were now worth $1-2M. Because they surrendered any claim over the houses, when the homes sold for big $$$ the bank got all of it and all the clients got was f**ked and dinged on their credit for the deal.

Yes, I realize that some of these people were never going to be able to pay their mortgages and would have to sell...but every last one of them would have been better off selling the property themselves, paying off the bank, pocketing the equity to retire on (most of these people were 50-60 in the last 5 years of 25y and 30y mortgages) and buying someplace cheaper in the suburbs they could pay cash for.

appalachiablue

(41,048 posts)
8. Thank you for the detailed reply. I'm familiar with that part of DC and the dramatic,
Wed Oct 28, 2015, 12:32 PM
Oct 2015

unsustainable rise in property values in DC and other gentrified metro areas particularly in the last 15 years. And you're correct that the bank was committing fraud against these homeowners. It made me sick and disheartened to read. That industry is rife and long known for predatory actions. They're criminals and should be punished severely.

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