Era properties charges employees for PC maintenance work.

[w1z4rd]

How legal is this? Just heard it through the IT grape vine. A company by the name of Era Properties forces its employees to pay for any IT work. For instance, if you lose your networking settings and your boss tries to fix it by uninstalling the drivers... the employee who works on the PC has to pay the PC techie they call in.

How legal is this? It sounds absurd to me.

 

[Voicy]

That's just crazy right there.

Could expect as much from estate agents.

 

[davemc]

Lulz!

Well, all things good and fair, the employee should have the opportunity to hire their own qualified techie instead of being forced to use the company appointed one, which opens up a whole can of client-confidentiality problems right there.

Legally, no money can be docked from pay, and the employee can simply refuse to pay the IT techie, insisting that the issue is brought to arbitration, where the employee can make a damn strong case along the lines of: It is not my fault that the PC broke.

 

[xrapidx]

I rented my first property from ERA - discovered after the second year that they were charging me for all sorts of funny fee's that weren't legal - when I took it up with them they didn't get back to me, but the fee's suddenly disappeared. It also took ages to get my deposit back.

 

[Mars]

We briefly dealt with them while I was on the body corporate of our complex. Dodgy bunch!

 

[mulderpf]

Is this an estate agent or admin person?

When I worked in the property industry most estate agents would "rent" their space. They basically rent the computer, the telephone, the services of the agency to do the admin, the space and so on. Since they are renting as opposed to being full time employees, I can understand that if something goes wrong with a PC, they make you pay for it. It's all tax deductible expenses which will reduce the estate agents tax liability. (That is of course if you are not an admin person in full time employment in which case it's wrong - personal opinion). See it as being self-employed, but being able to use the space of a large national company. If you were working from home as a self-employed individual and your PC broke, you have to pay to fix it.

Many larger franchises also do this - the head office forces you to use the services of specific companies, but you still have to pay for it. ERA is a national franchise, so if it's that they are charging the individual office for a national service, it's also understandable.

Can you confirm if this was an estate agent or other full time employee???

 

[Mars]

Is this an estate agent or admin person?

When I worked in the property industry most estate agents would "rent" their space. They basically rent the computer, the telephone, the services of the agency to do the admin, the space and so on. Since they are renting as opposed to being full time employees, I can understand that if something goes wrong with a PC, they make you pay for it. It's all tax deductible expenses which will reduce the estate agents tax liability. (That is of course if you are not an admin person in full time employment in which case it's wrong - personal opinion).

Thats a dodgy practice right there. Besides if I rent a tv from teljoy and the thing karks, I tell them to take it away and bring me another. Imagine them telling me to have it fixed? never mind at my own cost.

See it as being self-employed, but being able to use the space of a large national company. If you were working from home as a self-employed individual and your PC broke, you have to pay to fix it.

Many larger franchises also do this - the head office forces you to use the services of specific companies, but you still have to pay for it. ERA is a national franchise, so if it's that they are charging the individual office for a national service, it's also understandable.

Can you confirm if this was an estate agent or other full time employee???

now thats crazy. I have rented furnished offices from time to time, and everything is covered. If the computer falls on the floor, they come and bring me another one. Again, can you imagine if I where responsible for wear and tear/repairs? It ludicrous.
If I where working from home, I would be building my own brand. This is not so in this case. This person is building the ERA brand.
If this person where to leave they would leave with nothing but their salary.

This all sounds like a screw over to me.