I worked at Eastside Co for just under 8 years. I thought it would be useful to share my experiences and observations for potential employees, clients or suppliers to take into account before making a decision about working with the agency.
1. Late payment of wages: The company frequently pays staff late - sometimes a day, but in some cases up to a week. During my time there I was paid late at least 15 times. Often they wouldn’t notify staff if their wages weren’t going to be paid - payday would just come and go, and employees would be left without any money. On payday at the end of November 2023, I happened to check my bank account in the evening and noticed I’d not been paid. I was fortunate enough to be able to make financial arrangements so my mortgage payment and bills didn’t fail. The leadership team just never mentioned or even acknowledged it.
2. Non payment of employer and employee pension contributions: For a period of over 2 years, the company did not pay the employer contributions to the staff pensions. Not only this, but pension contributions were deducted from employees’ wages and not paid into the pension scheme. Staff were made aware of this when we received letters from the pension company notifying us of the missing payments, and the fact that the agency had been reported to the Pensions Regulator. This was never acknowledged by ESC until the staff forced the issue. Eventually some payments were reimbursed in May 2024. We believed the situation was resolved but staff received a further letter from the pension company last week, notifying us that ESC has been reported to the Pensions Regulator again, for non-payment of pensions for March 2024. They have also failed to pay staff pensions for April, May and June 2024. The situation remains unresolved.
3. Late payment and non-payment of redundancy money: There have been several rounds of redundancies in the last 3 years or so. I was one of the employees to leave during the most recent round of redundancies. Two weeks before my redundancy payment was due (as agreed in writing), I (and several others who were going through the same process) received an email from the HR Director to inform us that the agency had made the decision to delay the payment by a month. This money is intended to provide financial support while looking for a new job, and not everyone who received this message had found new employment at that point. While I received the money the following month, I know some people are yet to receive it, some 3 months later.
4. Failure to pay suppliers: I worked alongside suppliers including a PR agency and a web development company. The PR company had a lot of trouble getting payment for their services, only receiving it after chasing for months, and after having been told repeatedly that they had been paid when they hadn't. The web development company never received their payment - after chasing the money for 6 months, ESC went into administration at the end of 2023. It was acquired out of administration in a pre-pack deal (this is in the public domain).
I would welcome a response from the agency to challenge, explain or apologise for any of the above points.