I was approached by Network Omni Language Services in the beginning of January to work as a phone interpreter, from my home.
According to Mila Lucich, their recruiter, I was to be paid a certain amount per hour, calls or no calls.invoices would be paid 30 days after invoice date, only the first one would take 45 days.
I was to be an independent contractor; gave me the web address to check out company. I did that and as far as I knew they were an OK company.
They needed an English-Spanish interpreter for right now, and after taking a test with them, I started working, they e-mailed me a contract that I was to sign and fax/scan back.
Now, the contract says that they pay net 60 days after date invoice, which was different from what Mila Lucich had told me. I called her and she said that it would all be OK.
I signed and scanned the contract. I was to work on hours convenient to me, and by e-mail agreed upon certain hours.
Fortunately, all contact after the initial ones with the recruiter and test taker, has been by e-mail, and I can substantiate all I am stating here.
According to contract they have to supply me or any interpreter with their login report, which has to be sent with the invoice, by e-mail.
I requested my first login report, which I only received on February 5th, so then I could send in my first invoice over January.
I got an e-mail back saying I would be paid on April 5th.
In the meantime I received advice that as an interpreter I was very vulnerable to be sued if someone did not like the interpretation, or anyone disputed the accuracy of the interpretation; Omni kept all recordings and I have none - recordings can also be "doctored" -, and I decided I did not want to run that risk; I was working to earn a living and not to become a scapegoat, at any time.
So I e-mailed my resignation with a 30 day notice, as contractually agreed upon, and my last working day was March 11th.
I had sent in, by e-mail, my invoice over February and assumed that payment would be 60 days from date of invoice.
I had authorized direct deposit into my bank account for the payments.
April 5th, came and went, and no deposit in my bank account. Days went by, no payment, no answer to my e-mails or returning my calls - I had left messages.
At sometime, someone finally sent me an e-mail to tell me that their clients were slow and not paying, therefore they could not pay me.
I answered saying that I expected and demanded to be paid on time, as agreed, and otherwise I would be contacting their clients to find out if that was true.
I immediately received an e-mail back, telling me that they had forwarded my e-mail to their "legal council" - the guy writing these e-mails has a very poor command of the English language - and that my payments had been pushed to certain dates.
My reply was to sarcastically comment on the speed of the answer when clients were mentioned by me and that "legal council" was not going to pay me but their accounts payable would.
All in all they feel threatened by me - Great! - and have not been answering anymore and have not made any payment.
In the meantime, I discovered that they have been banned from a professional interpreters/translators site from posting jobs, and after buying the Blue Board report, I see that a whole crowd of people have either not been paid or paid very, very late.
On this site usacomplaints.com I see that there is a class action lawsuit against them, case # BC 372247.
I will not join the class action, but fight on my own.
I am trying to get the attention of FOX News to make this known nationally; I have also contacted some of their clients to make them aware of what is going on.
I just want them to pay me the 3 invoices they owe me, interest on the 1st one due since April 5th; I am not going to sit back and see what happens; no one messes with me.
I am not going to wait and see either; I am taking action right away, others have waited a long time already, I am not going to wait; I have already waited long enough for that 1 invoice, and I know that the other 2 will suffer the same fate.
My creditors aren't going to wait for me either.
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