Larian Studios Forums General Chat Former employer using pirate s/ware report yes/no?

I was dismissed from a company around 3 years ago as the company was having financial difficulties and did not pay my wages for three months. The boss one day (Friday) took me into his office and told me that as of tonight the company will cease trading. He then dumped a 40 page legal document on me that he insisted I signed immediatley as it was around 30 mins before close of business.

I stated that I needed to read it first but he wanted it signing there and then. To put a long story short I was pressured into signing. The company agreed to pay me two months wages of the three months owed.

The following week I noticed the business was still trading. When I called in I was told by my ex boss "you signed the document so you are released from your employment contract" then he went to answer the phone. I waited and then I pointed out that he said he was bust as of last week but yet still trading he became irritated and would not answer my question. I pressed further and asked about the money he still owed me but my former boss became violent and physically removed me from the building.

I went to see a solicitor who went through the document with me and to cut a long story short said that I should be entitled to redundancy pay and one month's wages. The document that I signed waived this however but it was buried away in pages and pages of legal guff and terms and conditions. The solicitor said I could argue the case it was signed under protest and my signature is therefore invalid.

The legal costs to take this to court etc would almost equal what I was owed in one months wage so I decided not to proceed. After seeing a program on the BBC this morning about debt recovery sheriffs I realized I could have taken my former employer to court for a fraction of the price. It's too late now to do anything about it.

I know that the company might have used illegal software through various means and I could report them for investigation but it was a small business and my former employer would guess it was me. He knows some nasty people one of which who has been in prison before and released so I'm reluctant to report them.

The BSA offers a reward for shopping pirates and I thought it would be a way of getting back at my former employer (it WOULD make them go bust if fined) and my way of getting back some of the money owed.

As of today the company still trades under it's original name and was verified by companies house. I feel shafted by this guy and I was wondering if this is a good idea or not.

One former employee still works there and I don't want to see him loose his job as he is a decent guy - another dilemma.

Thought I'd ask it here as it's unlikley my former boss will see it and recognize me.

my former employer would guess it was me.

So are you the only person who has ever stood up to him, or the only one he has used that tactic on? If he figures someone must have ratted him out, I'm guessing he is probably not going to have to go back 3 years to find a suspect, unless you were particularly memorable. See if the company shows up at the Office of Fair Trading / Citizens Advice Bureau / Trading Standards; if there have been a lot of complaints your boss is unlikely to connect anything to you.


(it WOULD make them go bust if fined)

That wouldn't be taken into account when assessing damages?


I was wondering if this is a good idea or not.

That I'm not sure of. There's something to be said for helping karma along (aside from the possible collateral damage), but then there's that whole forgive and forget thing (or forgive and don't forget, depending on who you ask)...

Arokh,

To be honest, I think if you allow this to fester I think it will end up hurting you a lot more than anyone else.

You have been badly treated, no question, but your next stop should be the Citizen's Advice Bureau if you wish to push for redress, as you need to know exactly what your rights are under law and how you can go about claiming them.

Reporting a firm for software piracy when you THINK they MIGHT be guilty is not a good move. After all, unless you are certain the possibility exists that you may be wrong. What then? Your ex-boss could rightly say you are a disgruntled employee looking to create trouble for the company which may land you in trouble rather than him.

Rather than revenge schemes - however justified - you are far better off finding out what options are legally available to you, then, when you have pursued them, chalking the whole thing up as a bad experience and moving on with your life.

Thanks both for the comments. Having slept on it I think it's best just to leave as-is.

When I worked there the company had lots of issues and I have no experience of running a business but even I knew there were several things that were not right. My suggestions to improve the business and / or bring in more money fell on deaf ears or was dismissed as 'stupid' etc. As a manager, I did run the retail and service side of the business whilst we also had a software development team and sales team etc looked over by the director.

One of which was one of my repair engineers - he was the most incompetent, useless guy who had no clue about computers and everything he touched turned to s**t. He caused me lots more work, sorting out irate customers when he got paperwork mixed up, wrote off the wrong machine, got hard drives mixed up etc. I had to spend from Friday night to early Monday morning once after he decided to 'fix' a raid array on a customer's server loosing all their data. I had to recover it and rebuild the machine so the customer could trade as normal. Thing is, he was a long time friend of the director so was untouchable.

Another was we had a web sales site which got around 2 sales a month if we were lucky. The prices were way too high due to very high mark up. The site cost a fortune to run. I was tasked with promoting it via sales fliers and e-shots but when that failed to bring in more sales I got a bollocking. My suggestions i.e try reducing the markup so we are competitive etc were dismissed. My suggestion to close the useless site was regarded as F-ing stupid.

I could go on but there was much more. I'm 75% certain he installed software on customer machines that was intended for internal use only but can't prove this. Legally, as 3 years have now passed there isn't anything I can do but I feel shafted and although it seems silly to come back to it after 3 years it would be nice if I could do something.

I feel that the director lied about the company going bankrupt (although they did have cash flow problems) and went to see a solicitor himself to see what his options were. I think he did this as he wanted to get rid of me but couldn't as I hadn't done anything to get sacked / fired and he didn't want to pay me redundancy money. This solicitor he got at the time had previously been in prison for fraud etc so his credentials are not great.

My bollockings for falling income via retail I blamed on the current market and our sky-high prices that were often 25% more expensive than major electronics stores. Repair costs I had to charge were so astronomically high no-one wanted to get their PC/laptop repaired - they just bought another - from somewhere else. Any suggestions or changes I wanted to make was not allowed.

The guy was a very clever guy who knew a lot of people (some with questionable credentials - see above) and he was good at talking bulls**t and able to worm his way out of any situation. One of them had just come out of prison 2 months previous for assault and GBH, the other the abforementioned mortgage adviser and solicitor. Probably best not to get involved.

One of his contacts was a builder who offered to do some work repairing the chimney stack on my house. The price was good and it seemed a reputable firm so I went for it. The 'repair' he did blew off in the wind as he had used the wrong chimney pot cowl. Furthermore he broke four slates and punched two holes in the roof where the feet of his ladders had been. I didn't notice till it rained which caused my more problems.

I spoke to the guy who refused to come back as he said it was already broken and the house is 150 years old and needs a new roof. I had to pay someone else to fix the mess he caused and do the job properly. This was another problem I had to contend with but eventually I got some money back. This is the quality of the people my former boss knew...

I did get another job afterwards for less money but now I'm unemployed again as the business went bust - not my fault as I was a mere engineer in a very large firm.

Whew, rant over. Just thought I'd tell you more about what I was up against.