On November 9, 2009, I sent the following e-Mail to Mr. Jack Leoard, assistant council for the DOT (department of transportation) in Ocoee, Florida which is the headquarters for the Toll Road.
The response I got from my e-mail to Mr. Leonard was for him to forward my e-mail to the president of Faneuil, Inc. At the time I was under the impression that Mr. Leonard was employed my the DOT and not by Faneuil, Inc.
It seems rather unusual that a state agency that has been advised of alleged allegations of contract violations between the DOT and Faneuil, Inc. that that informaton would be forwarded to the Company that the alleged violations are against.
It is no wonder that there is so much waste in our government. No one intends to be held accountable for their actions or their responsibilities.
"IN GOD WE TRUST"
November 9, 2009
Dear Mr. Leonard:
The JPG Document that I have enclosed is just the latest memo that Faneuil has written up and posted on bulletin boards. It's just another example how employees are being treated.
The contract that I read on the CD that I received from you is simply window dressing. It has almost no similarity to actually what is being done by Faneuil Management.
When we went to orientation at a Fort Pierce motel and it was first known that (Faneuil Group) would be taking over the contract for tolls, the person giving the orientation was a Mrs. Mary Coopland. The meeting that she conducted made it sound like we were going to work for a company that really cared about their employees. Other words, she made Faneuil Group to be "to good to be true". And, I truly believe that Mary represented a good company and gave an honest orientation. Then we find out that Ronald Perelman bought out the part of Faneuil Group that had successfully got the tolls contract and named his part of the company that he had just bought: Faneuil, Inc. By the way, Ronald Perelman is the 26th richest man in the United States. And, it would appear by the way his management team treats employees, he didn't get to be that rich by being fair to his employees.
Also, I have found out that Mr. Perelman, who also owned Allied/Barton when they had the tolls contract sold Allied/Barton some three months after buying Faneuil, Inc. for some $700 million. Tolls must be a pretty profitable endeavor when a man of his stature goes to as much trouble as he did to make sure that he kept the tolls contract. When Faneuil, Inc. was awarded the contract, everything that Mary Coopland promised us went out the window but it seems that some of the state executives aren't to concerned about us collectors. Those are kind of harsh statements but actions speak much louder than words.
The executives that are supposed to be overseeing that the language in the contract is adhered to are obviously taking Faneuil's word that they are doing so. Jack, as you know pretty words can be put in writing and records can be made to look good but the "truth" can be easily masked over.
Last week, one of the Port Saint Lucie collectors came to work very sick but she was a new collector so she didn't have any sick time ACCRUED. If she had not come to work, even though she was very sick, she would have been WRITTEN UP simply because she didn't have any ACCRUED sick time yet. This collector was in the toll booth with me and she could hardly hold her head up. She kept the trash can in front of her in case she had to vomit. (Faneuil management will tell you that this isn't true but I am willing to swear to these facts on the Bible and I don't take that lightly.)
Mr. Leonard, as stupid as this sounds, I personally have had to program my mental being to communicate with my physical being so it will understand I can't get sick until I have at least 8 hours of ACCRUED sick time, otherwise, my body would get sick when it feels like it and then I would get written up for calling in sick. Also, if I feel a little sick at 9:30 p.m. when I normally go to bed, I have to go ahead and call in sick to the "call center" (because we are REQUIRED to call in 4 hours before our shift is scheduled to start) even though after getting a good nights rest I may feel much better and would have been able to go to work the next morning.
In the contract, Faneuil claims that they have policies in place for the purpose of retaining employees. Nothing could be further from the truth (the more people that quit, the better they like it). They have ZERO incentive to want employees to stay. They get paid by billing hours - the more the better. Better to put two people in the same booth as often as possible ( a trainer and a trainee). More billed hours. Plus, for the first 90 days Faneuil pays absolutely no employee benefits - add to bottom profit line. Faneuil HR encourages supervisors to write employees up for every little thing and these write ups they use to take away collector's seniority rights and also the best way to get rid of collectors. Jack, has anyone checked the "turnover" statistics for when Barton had the contract and now that Faneuil has the contract vs. when the state managed the entire toll system. When I started there in 1994, the turnover was very low. It took me more than two years to just get a good shift. Now, because how Faneuil treats seniority, we have a collector that has only worked at Port St. Lucie for 4 or 6 weeks that has the most desirable shift on the first shift. Other collectors that had bid for it (and had been there longer) were denied the shift simply because they had a reprimand that was given to them less than 12 months ago.
I don't have a clue when it comes to executive pay and office expenses but what I do know, after reading the 400+ pages of the contract, that there is no correlation between the wording of the contract that I read and the way we are treated.
It would almost appear that the state people responsible for signing this document didn't bother reading it first. There seems to be absolutely no oversight or enforcement to this contract - other words, there is no sheriff in town.
If the state calls the paperwork and records that Faneuil prepares and presents to the state as evidence of compliance, then I would like for them to know that I have a wonderful piece of paradise in Louisiana that I would like to sell them.
It's kind of like putting the "fox" in charge of the henhouse.
When Faneuil throws us a tiny doggy bone, we are supposed to be so grateful. And, I am, after working there 15 years, I'm finally making $8.19 per hour. I guess that's the competitive pay that the contract states. The contract also states that there will be 3 levels of pay, according to years of service - which no collector that I have talked to has ever heard about.
In the contract they claim that they have provided collectors with a "good health care" package. That package has a $10,000.00 pay out per year by the insurance company. So one day in the hospital and your benefits are totally exhausted for the rest of the year. Of course, if a collector is sick enough to be in the hospital more than 1 day in the year, it's just tough. Mortgage your house to pay the hospital bill.
I claim protection under the "Whistleblower Act".
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