Dear Shemonika, I am writing to you in response to the voice mail you left on our phone system on Saturday,
February 20, 2016.
I want you to know that we have never spoken a negative word about you, to anyone.
We have no reason to retaliate against you as you said in your numerous letters and voice mails. It is your right to file a complaint.
While I didn’t believe it was justified, we complied with all the steps required by the Illinois Department of Human Services so that any alleged wrong doing could be reviewed by the authorities.
We have placed hundreds, if not thousands, of African American candidates into employment situations.
Sometimes it’s not the right fit, sometimes it’s a great match. We can’t account for how individuals that are supervising our temps act.
We do not work with clients that demonstrate any degree of racial intolerance.
Not every dismissal of an African American employee is race related. I am, however, not naive enough to think that racism doesn’t exist in the work place.
Unfortunately, we all have to pick ourselves up, dust our egos off and keep putting one foot in front of the other. We all suffer injustices as they can be infuriating and seem overly unfair, but life’s lessons test us not on how often we get knocked down but on how quickly we get back up.
You worked for Keystone Staffing for one assignment for a total of 19 hours, at which time the client company informed us that they were ending the assignment of the two remaining candidates we placed there for temporary employment. That is their right to do so. The fact that they ended the assignment was the only information that was given to us.
The Illinois Department of Human Services determined that we had done nothing wrong.
Your claim of retaliation has no merit. As a temporary placement company, we have the right to work with anyone we choose. We make our revenue based on having more and more temps in the marketplace. If we weren’t sending you on an assignment that we felt you would be a good fit for, we would be costing ourselves income.
On March 28, 2015, you informed us that you had filed a complaint against us with the IDHS, Illinois Department of Human Services. You did, of course, offer to drop the complaint and sign a non-disclosure agreement if we would come up with a mutually agreeable financial settlement for you.
As you are aware, we chose to go through the Governmental inquiry process.
After that happened you asked for a letter of dismissal from Keystone Staffing. There was no dismissal from Keystone. We sent you on an assignment, the assignment ended, and you were still eligible for assignments. You told us you needed a letter in order to work for another temp company because you couldn’t work for two companies at the same time. That is simply not true. We have many people who work for us and other temporary companies as well. Giving you the benefit of the doubt that maybe someone told you this incorrectly and you proceeded to think you were being kept from working. I can assure you that was not the case.
Temporary companies regularly call and send written inquiries to each other verifying previous employment. As of the writing of this response, no inquiry has been made by another temporary company or any prospective employer for that matter, regarding your work history with us.
Your next several letters to us, were about a letter you said you needed to provide information to the Missouri Court of Appeals regarding an Unemployment Claim.
We checked with the St. Louis Unemployment office to make sure we hadn’t sent in an inappropriate form or didn’t completely fill it out as you suggested in your correspondence with us.
The Missouri Department of Unemployment checked the file and explained that we had filled out all of our forms appropriately and the reason you were being fined was because you wrongfully collected unemployment during a time you were employed. It had nothing to do with your 2 ½ days of employment through Keystone.
Regardless of that, we sent you a letter on August 15, 2015, stating that your assignment with Keystone which began on 11.24.14 and ended on 11.26.14. We simply stated that it was a temporary assignment and that you did not quit nor were terminated from Keystone Staffing.
Your numerous voice mails and letters suggested to us that you were only looking for a cash settlement, and the “facts” you were presenting were not true and you were continually changing why you wanted a cash settlement!
At that point, we suggested because you were; continually changing the reason for wanting money from us and because you wouldn’t recognize the ruling from the IDHR, nor the information given to us by the Missouri Department of Unemployment, that perhaps you should have a third party contact us to explain your claim against us, more rationally.
We did not insist nor suggest that you get a lawyer, in fact Shemonika, I was hoping you could get a family member to contact us so that we could bring some resolution to your anxiety over this situation.
We also were feeling anxious as you continued to badger us with letters and voice mails claiming you were wronged and you needed compensation for that.
We were then contacted by a lawyer you retained from the Chicago area.
I spoke with him and told him all of the things that had transpired. He said he would talk with you about everything and find out what actions you wanted to take. We never heard back from him.
We received numerous letters following this from you stating you were wronged, that we were unethical and because of that you were entitled to some compensation for the inconvenience you suffered.
Most all letters ended with a demand for settlement and a date by which you would accept settlement and your willingness to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
We have stopped responding to you until now, because facts seem to matter little to you.
We are extremely frustrated with your constant letter writing and voice mail messages. Now you’ve decided you were going to post your claim against us on a website that only explains your side of the story, and if we didn’t settle with you in 30 days your accusations about us would be posted on the site “people claims” and would be followed up with a Facebook and Twitter campaign to discredit our company.
But of course you would stop all of this if we would just give you money. You are now asking for a year’s salary because we kept you from working.
No one at Keystone has kept you from working and the fact that no company has ever contacted us about your work history might suggest you weren’t looking for work or you didn’t bother to list us as a previous employer.
This latest attempt to squeeze money out of us for something that did not happen suggests you are willing to smear our company’s reputation for your personal gain. I noticed you were asking for an additional amount from our client.
Shemonika, we obviously thought we had some talent when we spoke to you on your interview, otherwise we wouldn’t have place you with our client. Now would be a good time to focus your attention on more productive matters.
We are not going to offer you a settlement based on any of the threats or demands you have made toward us.
We have tried to cooperate with all of the investigations you have mounted against us or threatened to mount against us.
We have done nothing wrong or unethical regarding your (19 hour) employment with us.
A.P. Queensen
Keystone Staffing