I recently started a new company with all new employees, and after a few months I got into deal with a local labor attorney to handle all the legal aspects of hiring and (particularly) firing. I have about 25 full time employees and plan to expand.
In particular I had a few incidences with theft and fraud and needed to get rid of some employees fast.
She told me we weren't registered properly with the Secretaria de Trabajo, (labor board) so we had to pay them their full liquidations and then she would straighten things out with the Secretaria so hopefully in the future we would have a position to fight from if we needed to.
I said OK fine, made sense to me, we gave the thieves their liquidation and she said she would get right on registering everything with the labor board.
I told her to let me know what kind of withholdings to make from the employees so I didn't end up having to pay Social Security and such things twice, and she said no problem, she would see what she could do.
It ended up taking quite a long tome for her to get everything straight, in fact it took nearly 2 months. Finally she brought me a bill for 18,000 pesos, backpayments I owe the government that I should have been able to withhold from my employees salaries, but since she was unable to predict what percentage I should withhold I have to pay it twice. Exactly what I asked her to make sure didn't happen.
The other day one of my employees had a disagreement with a supervisor and walked off the job, her brother who also works for me walked off after her to show support for his sister, and I asked my lawyer to file a complaint at the labor board for job abandonment. The next day these two employees showed back up demanding their severance. I told them they needed to give me a letter of resignation, or else get inside and get back to work. They opted to get back to work. I let my lawyer know the status of these two and now she says that since they came back before 48 hours was up there is no complaint we can file. (Actually she let me know about this when I called to confirm that she had filed the complaint, not filing any complaint was her idea and she didn't even think it was necessary to let me know about it)
I do not believe her, I think she just has an easy job (actually an "iguala" she is not an employee and she knows this, it is in writing) and doesn't want to lift a finger until the last minute on anything. After all, it's me who has to pay more if anything gets overlooked, not her.
Am I being to hard on her? Is it possible she is really doing all that can be expected? Or should I look for someone else?
I would really like someone on the ball who could actually save me money on employee issues instead of just drawing a fee to hand me bills that could be avoided.
Nevertheless I don't know what kind of help I can really expect to get, (maybe this is as good as it gets) any ideas?
In particular I had a few incidences with theft and fraud and needed to get rid of some employees fast.
She told me we weren't registered properly with the Secretaria de Trabajo, (labor board) so we had to pay them their full liquidations and then she would straighten things out with the Secretaria so hopefully in the future we would have a position to fight from if we needed to.
I said OK fine, made sense to me, we gave the thieves their liquidation and she said she would get right on registering everything with the labor board.
I told her to let me know what kind of withholdings to make from the employees so I didn't end up having to pay Social Security and such things twice, and she said no problem, she would see what she could do.
It ended up taking quite a long tome for her to get everything straight, in fact it took nearly 2 months. Finally she brought me a bill for 18,000 pesos, backpayments I owe the government that I should have been able to withhold from my employees salaries, but since she was unable to predict what percentage I should withhold I have to pay it twice. Exactly what I asked her to make sure didn't happen.
The other day one of my employees had a disagreement with a supervisor and walked off the job, her brother who also works for me walked off after her to show support for his sister, and I asked my lawyer to file a complaint at the labor board for job abandonment. The next day these two employees showed back up demanding their severance. I told them they needed to give me a letter of resignation, or else get inside and get back to work. They opted to get back to work. I let my lawyer know the status of these two and now she says that since they came back before 48 hours was up there is no complaint we can file. (Actually she let me know about this when I called to confirm that she had filed the complaint, not filing any complaint was her idea and she didn't even think it was necessary to let me know about it)
I do not believe her, I think she just has an easy job (actually an "iguala" she is not an employee and she knows this, it is in writing) and doesn't want to lift a finger until the last minute on anything. After all, it's me who has to pay more if anything gets overlooked, not her.
Am I being to hard on her? Is it possible she is really doing all that can be expected? Or should I look for someone else?
I would really like someone on the ball who could actually save me money on employee issues instead of just drawing a fee to hand me bills that could be avoided.
Nevertheless I don't know what kind of help I can really expect to get, (maybe this is as good as it gets) any ideas?
