Facebook page setup to help Dick Smith employees in need

DICK Smith employees are facing growing anxiety as an internal memo shed new information on the closures. But there is a way you can help.

Lifeline for desperate Dick Smith workers

WITH the clock firmly ticking, a Facebook page set up for beleaguered Dick Smith staff who will soon be out jobs is gaining traction as an online portal for career opportunities and encouragement, as thousands of employees are forced out and face an unknown future.

Graham McFarland, a former Dick Smith staffer who worked for the company for 18 years and left in 2008, set up the page, Help a Dick Smith Co-Worker, in the hope other companies would jump on board and post their ads on the page in order to help find a job for its 2890 staffers.

“You have staff that had 10-20 year tenures that are in this predicament now,” Mr McFarland told news.com.au.

“They haven’t done an interview in a long time, recruiters are saying it’s an employees’ market but we’re finding out it’s not.”

Fear and anxiety is growing for employees, who have been left in the dark over exactly when they could expect to be freed from their contractual obligations and when to expect redundancy and entitlement packages.

In an internal staff email sent by receiver Ferrier Hodgson and seen by news.com.au, the company could not make any promises on dates surrounding store closures.

“The timing of the individual store closures will be dependent on the outcome of the stock realisation sale,” the memo said.

“We will endeavour to provide you with as much notice as possible of the exact date that your store will close.”

Now in its fourth week, it said the sale was “progressing well”.

What not to ask ...

Passive aggressive notes dotcom.

It comes as fear and anxiety grows for employees, who have been left in the dark over exactly when they could expect to be freed from their contractual obligations and when to expect redundancy and entitlement packages.

The minimum time frame for a redundancy notice for permanent and part-time permanent staff is four weeks, but Dick Smith staff expect to be given shorter notice, likely just days beforehand. In this event, a source within Dick Smith’s ranks told news.com.au staff will be paid for four weeks of work regardless.

“This kind of thing really shakes up your existence and shoots your stress levels way up,” the source said.

“You are trying to find a new job while not being able to say when exactly you can come on board and all the time worrying that when you finally can tell people when you can start, it will be too late for that ideal job, or the better paying job or worse case, any job.”

The memo claimed the company anticipated “there will be sufficient funds available to pay a distribution of priority/preferential claims in full following the completion of the stock realisation sale.

“After the last store is closed we will write to all employees advising of the final amount owed to each employee.”

Employees then have three weeks to agree to the terms, and “any disputed amounts will be investigated as quickly as possible”.

Employees have been forced to go to extreme measures to find a new job.

Meanwhile, the memo advised employees that the Department of Employment has offered to run a number of transitional sessions across Australia for those “who are looking to get back into the workforce, are in need of financial support, or otherwise need advice in respect to their future employment arrangements”.

The two-hour sessions, according the email, were optional, free of charge and will be run outside of work hours.

Yet while staff are being kept up-to-date with the latest activities, the Australian public has been relatively shut down. Dick Smith stores across the country have been instructed to remove the signs erected by disgruntled employees that attempted to answer the big question: When are you closing?

A staff member for one of the Australian stores, who is waiting to hear about a redundancy package, told news.com.au staff were instructed to remove any signage that was not issued by UK based liquidators Hilco, who have taken over running the sale of stock while the stores close down.

“I’m pretty sure most stores haven’t as we all feel that we should be allowed to have a sign up that indicates we don’t know a closure date,” the inside source said.

“I think the signs were great and warranted, it is beyond frustrating dealing with that question from EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER. If the sign is not offensive and in good humour we should be allowed to put it up, plus it’s factual, we don’t know.”

Images of the comedic signs went viral after a customer photographed the messages and posted them on Reddit.

The staffer confirmed it was “100 per cent true” workers had no idea when the stores will indeed close.

A spokesperson for Dick Smith did not respond to news.com.au’s request for comment.

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