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

European Patent Office Illegally Gutting and Outsourcing Its Functions, Acting Like an Above-the-Law Commercial Business (It Won't Stop at Formalities Officers (FOs) and Classification Slop at the EPO)
breaking/violating laws and conventions
Links 19/09/2025: Lobbyist of American GAFAM Becomes Data Protection Commissioner in Europe
Links for the day
The Right to Punch People (Apparently)
At Brett Wilson, Brett's job title is "Head of Crime" and Wilson normalises calls for violence
Brett Wilson LLP Seem to Have Had Only One Litigation Client in 2025, He Was Previously Charged, Just Like the Serial Strangler From Microsoft (Whom They Now Represent)
Karma is superstition, regulators are not
Project 2030 to Cover How "Project 2025"-Styled Anti-Media Zealots From America Targeted Techrights and Tux Machines
The common denominator is also their attacks on women
Brett Wilson LLP Failed to Meet Deadlines Set by Judge 7 Months Earlier, Tried to Ruin Our Holiday, Then Had the Audacity to Ask Us for Over 3,000 Pounds for Its Own Lateness
As a matter of principle we will never respond to assassin while we are on holiday
 
Links 19/09/2025: Press Freedom Dying in US, Anti-Austerity Strikes in France, and Alan Rusbridger to Leave 'Prospect'
Links for the day
Offloading to the Sister Site
In the interest of not overwhelming readers
Links 19/09/2025: Coffee Club and "SpellBinding is Now Absurdly Fast"
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Media Freedom Ceases to Exist in US, "Consider Dropping Twitter/X"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/09/2025: Thinking and Insect Bites
Links for the day
Microsoft E.E.E.: Git Will Now (or Very Soon) Fully Depend on Rust, Which is Controlled by Microsoft
Microsoft now makes Git dependent on Rust, or making Git dependent on GitHub, which is proprietary
Slop or Fake Articles Have Turned Linux Journal From a Pioneering/Trailblazing "Linux" Magazine Into a Nuisance
some sites with former reputation - good reputation - turn into cesspools
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 18, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 18, 2025
On Claims That After Bluewashing Red Hat Will Increasingly Become an Indian Company
Discussed this week (long and detailed)
Americans Attacking British Sites Only Months After They Leave America
We find it kind of funny if not ironic that this site, originally an American site, got legal harassment only from Americans and only months after it had moved to the UK
Despite Losing Over a Quarter Million Dollars a Year Software in the Public Interest (SPI) Gives Helping Hand to Libreboot
SPI's financial state depends a lot on its public image or its reputation
Slopwatch: Google Helps Plagiarism and Sends Traffic to Ripoff Artists
That Google as a company helps spamfarms is noteworthy
If You Want to Know the Future, Listen to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Andy Farnell
We're sure the FSF will have plenty of its own output
Links 18/09/2025: A Taliban Ban on Internet Access and Troubled US Job Market
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/09/2025: Computer Literacy and Accessing Alhena's Database
Links for the day
Links 18/09/2025: US War on Media (Truth Banned, Cancel Culture by the Hard Right), NYT Chief Executive Warns Cheeto is Deploying ‘Anti-press Playbook'
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Slopwatch: Fake Articles, Fake Text, Fake Images, Negative Slant on "Linux"
Google News has lost its value; the signal-to-noise ratio has fallen off a cliff
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Relax-and-Recover on Proxmox and New Smolweb File Transfer Service
Links for the day
Fact: EFF Got Corrupted by Corporate Money. Microsoft Lunduke (Political Noise): The Issue With EFF is, It Kills Babies.
Microsoft Lunduke - as usual - finds a way to make it about abortions
Pacing Publication Up a Bit
The news cycles have gotten rather light and slow
Links 17/09/2025: Power Outages, Digital Controls, and Attacks on the Mainstream Media (by Insecure and Corrupt Dictators)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Flashing LineageOS and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Long COVID Study, "Exposing Pegasus", and Chatbots Exposing Sensitive Data
Links for the day
Links 17/09/2025: Secret Settlement for Internet Archive and Google’s LLM Slop Summaries Attracting Lawsuits
Links for the day
The True Cost of 'Generative Models'
Funded and promoted by the companies that profit from the waste
'Big Slop' Attacks Contemporary Information/Knowledge and Creative Works, 'Big Copyright' (Cartel) Attacks the Old
Someone at IA will hopefully "blow the whistle" on what they actually agreed
Why We Find It Difficult to Trust Rust
A comparison between C/C++ and Rust
Slop Nihilism is Funded by Big Oil
Eventually human civilisation will destroy itself
Watching the OSI: Our Series Will Carry on Irrespective of the Chief's 'Resignation'
the OSI isn't even the real guardian of the term "Open Source"
Professor Eben Moglen Recovering From Open Heart Surgery
From his public pages (this is not secret)
Just What LibreOffice Needs? Another Language? (Rust)
what's all this concern about memory safety?
Many Microsoft Managers Are Leaving
"Hey hi" chaff or chaff about "hey hi" cannot eternally distract from the difficulties inside the company
There Are Red Hat (IBM) Layoffs, But Google News is Infested With Slopfarms
It contributes a lot to misinformation and it encourages plagiarism
Tomorrow, Microsoft's Tim Anderson's 'The Register MS' Offshoot Will Have Been Inactive for 2 Months (There's Also a Slop Problem)
We've already caught The Register MS using LLM slop for articles
Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Leaves Microsoft After Nearly 30 Years
And not retiring
Even Windows Users Are Having Problems With "Secure Boot"
When it comes to security - Microsoft strives for the very opposite
Another Competition Crime of Microsoft, Long Facilitated and Advocated by a Bad Actor, Who is Funded by a Third Party to Commit Extortion Against People Who Have Correctly and Repeatedly Warned About It for Over 13 Year
We must always go back to the core issues
3 More Reasons to Replace Mozilla Firefox With LibreWolf
Thankfully there are de-enshittified versions of Firefox
USA Not a Place for Free Speech
In America, as in the US, the attacks seem more enhanced or advanced these days
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 16, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Links 17/09/2025: Google Layoffs in "Hey Hi" (AI), Perplexity Hit With More "Hey Hi" (Plagiarism) Lawsuits
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Reclaiming Things in a Digital Age and Moon Phases in CGI
Links for the day