This company has no professionalism, and has caused me personal and financial harm.
I was contacted by this company in regards to a position that paid very well in the Oilsands in Fort McMurray, Alberta. At the time of being contacted I was advised that this company was "VERY" interested in meeting with me for the position. I was to interview with the company according to my contact at the company the following Wednesday. Unfortunately, I was never contacted again until November 18, 2008. B
By the time I was contacted again I was already employed, the email I received from my contact at ATS, was very panicked and advised that the company that wanted to interview me had lost my resume, just found it, and didn't know where it came from, but they wantedm very badly to meet with me.
I re-arranged my whole schedule to ensure I could partake in the interview with the contact at Albian Sands site, he advised me he liked what he heard and we would have an answer the following day, or by latest the following Friday.
I did not hear much back for about a week, after repeated attempts to contact ATS Reliance in Calgary, finally received an email back, advising me I would need to do the Construction Safety course which is a half day event, as well that I would need to partake in drug testing which was no problem.
I attended both of these appointments as well, the drug test that was supposed to be 10 minutes, ended up being an all day event, as well as the Construction site testing which took half a day. Both days I was unable to go into my regular position, so that was my first experience with lost wages because of ATS Reliance.
A few days later I received an email asking me what date I could start work, I advised ATS Reliance, December 1, 2008 so that my financial obligations would not be interupted.
Again did not hear back from ATS Reliance until after my assumed start date of December 1, 2008. Luckily I had not given my notice to my employer for that date as I never heard back from the Calgary ATS office.
Finally in Early December I received the confirmation that I had a fixed start Date of December 8, 2008. I requested a lot of information to ATS, in which they got it to me in somewhat of a timely fashion.
I arrived on site on December 8, 2008 only to find out that they didn't even know I was coming, and they had given ATS instructions to contact me to let me know I would not be able to start. They allowed me to stay the day and work. Still not even that evening had I heard anything from ATS after numerous emails and messages being left.
Again, went into my new position the following day, only to get pulled out of a meeting with contractors, and sent home on a shuttle bus because I had not been given the go ahead to start. Nonetheless, I was also told by my boss at site that because I was advised not to cmoe in, I would not get paid for the days I worked.
At this time my brother tried to contact the ATS office in Calgary. He advised them that he was very upset and concerned for my financial situation as I had quit my other position to take this one. He was advised by a regular contact at ATS that he need not worry about my finances, that I would be compensated for my lost time,a nd lost wages.
I received on call from the branch manager at the Calgary office who left me a voicemail stating that I needed to contact him so that he could get me set up permanently on site.
I called him back the next day, left him a message and have heard nothing back from their office at all since December 12, 2008. It was my understanding that this is what was going on. After the last phone call I received from the manager at the Calgary office, and the last conversation we had was that he was going to do everything to get me back up on site asap.
Since that day they have refused to respond to any of my emails, even the branch manager. They have witheld head office information from me as it took me almost 2 weeks to obtain a contact at their head office, even then she has been nothing even close to helpful.
I even went as far as contacting my contact at the Albian Sands site in regards to this as the day he sent me home he advised that he wanted me back we just had to wait on these test results for my drug test. He advised me that he received a call following the day I was sent home, stating that I would not be returning, the same day I received the call from the manager in the Calgary office stating he was going to do everything he could to get me back up on site asap.
ATS did not share any of this information with me, nor has anyone paid me for the time worked up at site, whether a mistake or not I still worked. They claim to have mailed out cheques but refuse to issue me a cheque number or any definitive dates on when they were mailed.
Of course due to quitting my last position for this job, I have now been seriously financially strained, waiting for someone to get back to me on when I can go back to work, and doing my d**n hardest to get back up there only to find out a month later that the employer had been told I was not returning.
This company is not a legit company to work for, they obviously don't care about the people they try so hard to place. I have worked for a agency in the past, but never would I ever have ignored and ruined a whole month of someone's life because of a mistake my company had made.
ATS needs to take some responsibility on this issue. I will be contacting many agencies and companies that I know deal with ATS to advise them of this situation and hopefully to avoid other people having to go through what i have gone through int he past month, financially and emotionally.
So now i'm back to square one, and fighting for the income I should have been receiving to this point. I wont' let it go, and I'm not going away just because no one decided to respond to my requests. There is so much more to this story, I have a detailed timeline of events and a book full of emails from people at ATS and other companies that they dealt with on my behalf. I will definitely be suing this company for everything they have done to me and put me through.
To the employee's at the ATS office, I hope that you all enjoyed Christmas, and whatnot at home with your families, and gave gifts and spent time with the ones you loved. I spent it alone in a city where I know no-one, simply because someone couldnt' pass on a message to me.
I will hold ATS responsible, but I would not reccommend anyone else use ATS for their staffing, or employment needs. Chances are they will screw up your life, doesn't matter how long or hard you spent building it.
Screwed-royally
Ft McMurray, Alberta
Canada