Disposable Rant (Nicely) Room

INVESTIGATORS
241

Reginv,

I know of a former INV in my area that was receiving payments because of the H/W thing, but I’ve never heard of anything. They said that they just received it out of the blue and it was certainly not communicated to them straight from USIS. How does one find out if they should’ve been getting money owed?

It’s exactly because of the H/W thing, why I think the WARN Act (and anything else they might be in violation of) should be followed as far as it can be taken!

Also, does anyone have a contact for handling of cell phone stuff with USIS?

242

If it is true that we are owed H&W, I would want to know who I can contact to any money that is owed.

There has to be someone we can reach out to because this is total BS

 

 

243

 

USIS has gotten away with a lot of shadiness over the years. Let’s take a moment to name just a few of these atrocities:

USIS was required to back pay for not paying Investigators the correct salaries per DOL guidelines. Don’t you all remember back in 2011 or 2012 getting retroactive payments from USIS because the DOL said they weren’t paying us the minimum wage standards for each title of Investigator. Some investigators got anywhere from $4,000 to $12,000 in retroactive payments from the DOL a while back.

 

For those that inquired and threatened legal action about the H&W fringe benefit payment that wasn’t being paid because people weren’t electing any benefits–these people received checks from USIS because USIS knows that they were in the wrong and defrauding their employees of their entitled money (sound familiar only on a much larger scale with the same type of defrauding the federal govt. for dumping cases and not properly reviewing background checks for national security investigations??). If we all only knew about the SCA H&W fringe benefit payment that was required. But no word of this was ever mentioned to the employees until benefits came out in 11/2013 in order to screw us more and make us pay $800/month to insure an entire family with a $4,000 deductible and no access to the medical plan until the deductible was met. Way to leave you employees hanging out to dry.

Taking away PTO from the field without any warning in 12/2012 while Team Lead’s, RD’s and VP’s get to slowly exhaust their PTO for the entire summer and fall of 2012 while any vacation requests are cancelled by USIS during the latter half of the entire year of 2012. Talk about a double standard. By not paying people their unused PTO that was banked is about as “scumbag” of a thing that you can do. Once again, those that threatened legal action….USIS paid back their unused PTO and more from what i have heard in large sums of money.

 

Now we get to the furlough….Furlough occurs and no notice that this is serious enough that a permanent layoff will be occurring. In fact throughout the layoff we are told the company spent millions of dollars on 20 computers that were plugged in at Grove City, PA and told that they are waiting on shipping the field 2,000 new computers. I have to laugh at this because they even sent a picture with 20 computers plugged in on a table…laughable. Most of us hear from media way before a TL or RD even sends out an email that USIS will not be renewed on the OPM contract in 10/2014. According to what I have read about the WARN law, USIS appears to be in violation of the law because they did not give written notice within 14 days of this permanent layoff that was going to occur.

 

I cannot stomach any more dishonesty and poor ethics by this disgraceful company. I hope someone strong enough to stand up to them makes them pay us back for all of the grievances they have caused us with PTO, possibly back pay of severance, etc. and undue stress and anxiety that this job has caused me.

 

If I could only have a minute with Mr. Phillips and Logan, they’d have an earful…looks like it’s time I speak with an attorney.

 

244

maybe we should e-mail HR and ask what they think about the H&W debacle.

 

humanresources@usis.com

 

drop them a line!

245

Calm down all. Enjoy kp or caci. Put usis behind u. They will not be paying hw, warn act, severence, pain and suffering or nothing else. They are bankrupt for goodness sake!!! Cant sue a bankrupt entity, folks.

In the legal world bankrutcy = judgment proof. Got it?

 

Now, can we move on to reality?

246

 

Ceo sterling offering 25000 dhs employees free credit monitoring. Lmao. Thats like mr. Snowden doing my ESI. usis better than comedy central. Maybe sterling will offer free credit monitoring for furloighed usis employees for a severance package.

247

What’s even funnier is that usis is offering credit monitoring via kroll, which happens to be owned by altegrity. Yeah…no thanks. I got the letter as a former usis slave.

I have lifelock anyway so they know where they can stick their credit monitoring offer.

248

 

Almost as funny as that year RD Gave us all $5 starbucks gift card fOR XMAS. Or that picture of bill mixon in his santa claus hat.

 

The smartest one among all of us is that guy who filed whistleblower claim. Blake percival? He will make easy 6 digits from all of this. Way to go blake. U da man!!!

249

You’re right. Smart move on his part.

I wish there were a way to jump into that law suit.

 

250

I actually did detail few years ago and blake the dm at that time at detail location. Helluva nice guy. A former college football star i recall him telling me.

 

I glad he had the cahunas to do it. He brought down a corporation, alone.

251

Ha! I totally forgot about that picture of Mixon in the Santa hat. Between that one and the recent picture of computers sitting in PA I can’t decide which one was dumber.

Blake hired me. Great guy.

252

cold hard truth

Re: back H&W - research the SCA, calculate what H&W was for each year you worked and subtract the employer contribution for the benefits you took. If it turns out you had a surplus - go for it. But as I said on the other forum topic, don’t expect anyone from USIS to help.

Question - why do you want to know if you continue to insist USIS has no money?

USIS is not bankrupt yet, they still have 40% of the business and they are owned by Altegrity that is not yet bankrupt.

 

 

253

Not only did they send out the picture of the laptops, but they actually sent out tracking numbers for them. It would be hysterical if it wasn’t so pathetic.

254

Does anyone know how far back we were supposed to be getting the H&W benefit?

255

Whenever you started working for USIS on the OPM contract.

The McNamara - O’Hara Service Contract Act was passed in 1965.

256

Just wanted to give you some things to ponder as you make your decisions to remain in the industry.

The demise of USIS was brought on by greed and lack of respect for those performing the work. Unfortunately the ones that suffered were those on the ground.

Both CACI and KeyPoint have jumped in and are looking for you to join their team placing each of you in control of your future on the OPM contract. both companies have remained steadfast in recruitment but differ in some key areas.

Well here goes.

First and foremost compensation. Is your value being recognized. KeyPoint offers 6 levels with a fixed pay structure and locale pays for high cost areas, opportunities to step up to the next level qtrly, bonuses for exceeding base expectations, KeyPoint has no cap on this model.

Compensation is typically tied to a base expectation, are they reasonable, did someone take the time to explain these expectations. Were you promised things that seem to good to be true. What does your industry experience tell you.

Sign on bonuses. Has the company you are joining offered you one.

Work share, what is the volume of work that the current vendors is receiving.

Case mix, does your current or new vendor receive a healthy mix of case work or are they limited to only a handful of case types.

Did your former manager recruit you to join the team, what was their incentive, keeping the team intact, or solidifying their new role as a lead and potentially lining their own pockets.

You will find faults and strengths in both and ultimately you hold your next steps. Both companies will welcome you with open arms and represent much different values than those of your former employer.

I have posted this under my real name and have had the pleasure of working with both companies with some truly great individuals as well as management on both sides.

KeyPoint continues to hire! We do investigations this isn’t a side project for us, this is our business.

Interested in joining our team visit our website or contact me directly jon.labay@keypoint.us.com

257

These are my personal views and in no way represent KeyPoint.

258

 

@jon.laby

 

Well stated. But i i have 1 nagging question. This is not 3rd party info, either. A very good friend of mine iS FT at kpgs as FI. Last year, his pay was cut due to performance issues. And actually, it happened twice in last 2 years. That said, due to improved performance, his pay has since been reinstated.

True or False? Does that occur at KPGS?

As for bonuses, my buddy clearly said they are next to impossible without 99% quality.

My problem is that i am an above average FI, no better. I fear my salary may be a moving target.

Thoughts?

259

I heard the same thing, if an investigator does not perform to their level for 3 months, they will get demoted to the lower level of investigator.

260

@ cold-hard-truth

 

Keypoint has 6 salary levels for FIs. When I left USIS in 02/2012, USIS had only 3. I would find the level that is at (or even slightly below) where you usually perform and go with that. That way it shouldn’t be difficult to meet your level and you should have no problem bonusing regularly. I’m a Level II at keypoint, which works for me as I have some other things going on in my life that require flexibility. I meet my production numbers without too much stress and usually get a bonus (some quarters larger than others). In my 18mos with USIS, I never heard of anyone actually getting a bonus of any kind. If you want to level up after meeting a high levels production goals after 3 months, you can. If you don’t want to move up, you still get a bonus when you overperform. I like having the reduced stress of a lower expected with the ability to earn more if I want to.

 

Also, the threshold for quality has been lowered to 90% from 95% in the last couple of months.