Back in November I applied for the position of Seasonal Tax Preparer at The Food Change (CFRC - a "non-profit" organization whose services include free tax return preparation for low-income New Yorkers), and was interviewed at their Harlem office. I was offered the position @ $10.00 per hour. As agreed, I attended the training classes for 5 days (6 hours per day) at their Bedford-Stuyvesant office. Unfortunately, on the sample tax return portion of the exam, some of us were off by a small amount. Some were forgiven and passed, but the rest of us were told to come back for re-testing on 12/28/05. On that re-test, although off by a few dollars, I was even closer to 100%.
The Food Change now tells you either you pass at 100% or you fail. But in reality, nobody is 100% accurate 100% of the time, especially if you are new on a job! Does this outfit believe that a senior tax accountant or manager at a major CPA firm never makes mistakes?
Of course, our biggest beef is over wages.in the job listing, it was clearly written: "Paid Training". However, after the week of training, we were told that we would be paid for the training after working a month on regular duty. Well, we (at least myself) were not told this at the time of hire. If nothing else, this crappy outfit is guilty of misleading advertising. Their ad says "Paid Training", but it was really more like an audition with no pay! The fact is, in every job I've held in the past, we were paid from the first day of orientation and/or training. Even those who did not work out were still paid for their time with the company.
It goes on. Knowing that some of us were irate about this (and contemplating legal action against The Food Change), they called me back to their Harlem office a few weeks ago, telling me that they would give me a seasonal position assisting the Brooklyn office manager. However, I had to first complete the Intermediate Link&Learn module on the IRS website. This is a long and tedious process, especially if (like myself) you have to do it on a (slow) dial-up Internet connection. (I also asked The Food Change if I could do it at their office, on a faster Internet connection, but they declined). I finally finished it, printed the paperwork, and copied and pasted my test results on an e-mail to The Food Change. But a few days, and a few e-mails to them generated no response. So in my next e-mail to them, I became more assertive. They finally replied, saying they no longer want me. They said I was threatening (simply because I mentioned possible legal action, and that at least one person among us has spoken to a lawyer). They didn't like my suggestion that this IRS module assignment was just their effort to delay any legal action by us. BUT IN REALITY, DOESN'T IT SEEM LIKELY THAT THE FOOD CHANGE WAS DOING THIS JUST AS A STALL TACTIC?
If you look at job boards which list non-profit organizations, it is likely that you will see The Food Change (CFRC) advertising in the fall for seasonal tax preparers in New York City. However, I hope you will read this report before you apply to this crappy (non-profit?) outfit. Think about it - The Food Change wasted many hours of our time, and (despite the phony job ads) hasn't paid us a penny for it!!
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