Kevin Riley, Person 2 Person, and a rat.

The company that I have worked for for the past several weeks (Person 2 Person) declared bankruptcy this weekend. And they just informed us that they may not be able to pay us the wages and expenses that they owe us. As you can imagine, I'm a bit angry.

According the Person 2 Person's owner and director Kevin Riley, American Express suddenly decided to pull their contract because they weren't getting the results they required. This bankrupted the company and they have no assets. Of course it's an LLC, so Mr. Riley's personal wealth is not at stake. According to him, AmEx still owes him money on a number of received credit card applications so he claims he will eventually pay us if that comes through.

According to my slightly more reliable sources, AmEx has been threatening to cancel Person 2 Person's contract for months now. It's funny that we were never told anything until the last day of our most recent pay period. Essentially, we worked for the maximum amount of time possible before they would've been expected to pay us. It all seems a wee bit fishy to me. He's lost nothing except a business built on leases and credit, we've lost 2 weeks of productivity and a significant amount of money in travel expenses.

It's not so bad for me. New Zealand has a "holiday pay" law, where employers are required to save an additional 8% of their employee's salary which must be paid out upon termination of employment. Basically, if you have worked for a year, making $100,000 per year, when you are terminated at the end of the year you will receive $8,000. Furthermore, Person 2 person had a paid vacation time scheme. I've only worked there for a couple of weeks - I had no paid vacation time, and my holiday pay amounts to about $40. But there are people who have worked for Mr. Riley for over 2 years. They are out $6000 - $10,000. And that doesn't include unpaid commission. I'm out $100 in expenses plus about $550 in wages, and I'm livid. I can only imagine how my long-term coworkers must feel.

Anyways, we've filed a complaint with the labour department, so we have first dibs on any assets that are seized from Person 2 Person. And we talked to a labour union and they are looking into using "leverage" against Mr. Riley, whatever that means. I believe some people have already seized a few assets in advance. Frankly, I don't blame them...

On a brighter note, one of my friends may have found me a job at a little coffee stand in the mall. It looks like a fun job, I've always wanted to learn how to make a good latté.