Bonum Certa Men Certa

Sirius ‘Open Source’: When the Company Stops Paying Your Pension and You Don't Know Until the Pension Provider Keeps Sending Physical Post to Alert You

Too busy to do pensions and send payslips



Summary: Today we turn our attention to pension blunders at Sirius ‘Open Source’; in recent years even something basic like pension contributions wasn't smooth sailing

WE'VE just posted a meme that demonstrates the immunity (de facto impunity) for bosses who make serious mistakes that upset not only staff but also clients. There are many examples of this, but today we share one. We'll also show some evidence tomorrow as it serves to show the depth of these scandals.



This text, which can be found below, is part of a report left when we resigned; we may come back to that later as it shows a pattern of cover-up and lame excuses after utter failure to do the job properly at the very top of the company.

Regarding greenwashing the cessation of physical payslips, and not to forget repeated failure to send electronic payslips, this subject may also be revisited later. We've been noticing similar experiences in other companies, not just banks and utility billing; the bogus excuse that sending E-mail (or using a Web site, "apps" etc.) is "green" overlooks the massive carbon footprint associated with manufacturing (power and waste) and operating (electricity) computers, even some of the more modern "phones" that need to be charged every day.

Here is the relevant part of the report:




Pension Not Now!



There's no more in-house accounting, the person who set up the pension scheme also left, and all workers' pensions got outsourced to some other company (so the pension scheme is now fragmented for long-serving staff).

Years ago several colleagues, including Roy and Rianne, were cautioned by the pension provider that the pension was not being paid; it wasn't an isolated incident as this happened for several consecutive months and on numerous occasions over the years. The simplest and plausible explanation is that the company (Sirius) had financial difficulties, but the "official" explanation was that the portal had technical issues in it. There are several inconsistencies in the latter explanation, for reasons beyond the scope of this document. Later difficulties cemented the belief that under the surface there was a crisis of another nature. It may be possible that there were technical issues coming back every now and then (for almost a year). If so, staff should have been notified and fully informed, sparing the need to go through the hassle communicating with barely-accessible pension companies, sometimes behind the managers' backs (this is bashful both for workers and for the pension providers). This seems like a managerial failure. Speaking of failure to pay, it's crystal clear that the company (Sirius) failed to pay providers of services or clients' providers of services. It's like not paying the webhost for a very long time. These chronic issues of either neglect or miscommunication should be brought up; but in Sirius it's seriously unwelcomed.

It may seem appropriate to note that one administrator has been on maternity leave and as a result staff has received no payslips for months already (it's a strict legal requirement by the way). As a matter of fact, prior to that everyone received physical copies by post. Then members of staff were assured electronic versions would replace them. Then... they stopped coming. And then, only upon polite prodding they started coming again, sometimes in bursts several months apart (not every month). Nowadays staff may receive nothing at all as evidence of pay. There are many gaps in the sending of such payslips, even electronically. Who has been given the responsibility and where is the accountability? Staff should not have to repeatedly ask for payslips; it ought to happen automatically without the feeling that it requires perceived 'nagging'. Roy and Rianne were chasing this many times as payslips had stopped coming. This even needed to be escalated upwards (to the CEO) before things got belatedly done, at least temporarily.

Inconsistent operations or 'compliance in intervals' had already become routine. Communication had been diluted into subtle hints and sporadic innuendo. Engagement with clients had descended to storytelling, with very rare admissions of guilt or apologies. Some clients demanded a refund (all their money back) for Sirius failing to fulfil its side (contractual obligations) of the deliverables or service levels.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Nonfree Software in My Bank, by Richard Stallman
Updated 8 hours ago
Richard Stallman is Usually Right Because He Thinks "Outside the Box"
he is able to observe society (mores and norms) as somewhat of an outsider
 
Microsoft Behaving Like It's Running Out of Money to Pay Salaries
Does that seem like the behaviour expected from a company which claims it is "worth" trillions?
LWN Downtime Due to Linode, Not LLM Bots
"I’ve received an email letting me know that there is a potential for data loss."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 28, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 28, 2025
Links 28/07/2025: Science, Health, and Conflicts
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Healthy Self-Image With Autism and a "New Life"
Links for the day
Links 28/07/2025: COVID-19 Sped up Brain Aging, "Circumvention is More Popular Than Compliance"
Links for the day
LWN Has Been Down for a Long Time, Another Casualty of LLM Bots?
Time will tell. How much time though?
Slopfarms Versus 'Linux' (and Against People Who Write Real Articles About GNU/Linux)
LLM slop in slopfarms by Brian Fagioli and Redazione RHC
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025
The Week to Come
Planning ahead
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles