O'Hsin Techonology

Last December, I found myself starting to panic. It was my first month post-TEFL and as my dollars dwindled, the days shortened and my teaching schedule started requiring pre-dawn schleps to places like Luka and Skalka, I began to dream of the very thing I thought I'd never want: an office job.

Enter Canadian company O'Hsin Technology, whose offer of a position as a "media broker" seemed to be the voice of God, speaking to me through the employment listings of expats.cz. The premise was simple: O'Hsin would broadcast highlights of this summer's FIFA World Cup on screens in cities across Europe. We, the media brokers, would sell ad space on these screens. We'd receive a take-home salary of 18.000kc per month, a 10% commission on all deals we made and visa assistance. We got to hang out in a nice office on Krakovska, instead of schlepping to Skalka.  

My doubts began as soon as I arrived for training with the Canadian staff and found myself doing what was essentially upscale telemarketing. I told myself that as an actor, I should welcome the chance to try different personas on the phone, but even the knowledge that Johnny Depp once sold pens by phone failed to improve my spirits as I got more and more depressed. I quit just before Valentine's Day, but my colleagues soldiered on, holding onto the dream of the one great deal that would allow them to leave.

Until Monday, April 3^rd, when they arrived at the office to find the Canadian staff gone, the

computer hard drives missing and the contents of their desks, including personal documents and labor contracts shredded. They were owed payment for six weeks of work, and no one had received commissions.  

When a former colleague texted me with the news, I was shocked. Even more shocking, perhaps, was how easy it was for O'Hsin to set up here. O'Hsin's Toronto headquarters had a Polish colleague acquire and rename an existing company. A Czech company jumped on board for the process of becoming an s.r.o. and was quickly bought out by O'Hsin. When business didn't proceed as smoothly as O'Hsin had hoped, employees were sacked and there was talk of salaries being lowered. When employees complained and asked for more transparency, the company responded by leaving, completely unannounced.  

Since O'Hsin's flight, the employees have organized, visiting the Canadian Embassy, the Foreign Police, the American of Chamber of Commerce, Interpol and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Labor. TV Prima has covered the story and major newspapers in C.R. and abroad have been contracted. "They broke labor, commercial and tax laws of the E.U.," says Mgr. Lenka Szonyiová, a former O'Hsin employee. "They made this business in the Czech Republic, against Czech law, and the government doesn't do anything about it. We are trying to push the situation so this doesn't happen to anyone else." 

Dimitri Kuptsov is quick to point out that he's not looking for pity, just satisfaction. "I spent three months of my life [doing this job] and the whole time they were looking me in the eye and shaking my hand. I would like them to pay us and get out of our lives." Jan Los adds that the majority of the affected staff is Czech: "People think the staff was just foreign and they should go back to their own countries, but it wasn't."  

Some staff remain hopeful that O'Hsin will make things write. "How they left is disgusting, but the law says they have until the end of next month to pay us," Jaroslava, another former employee, told me. "Until we receive documents ending the contracts, we are still employees of O'Hsin Technology."  

That may be true, but they are unpaid and unhappy ones. "Of course we will concentrate on new lives, but now we are without money. They have put us in a position where we don't have money to live," Szonyiová explains. Teodora, who moved from Bulgaria to accept the job with O'Hsin, is going home: "What can I do - there's no job, no money, no nothing."  

The whole experience with O'Hsin has left a bad taste in my mouth. The havoc their leaving has wreaked in the lives of an international staff that is predominantly young and financially unstable feels exploitive. I understand the economic attractiveness of the Czech Republic for international companies, but something needs to be done to protect employees, both Czech and foreign, from businesses like O'Hsin Technology. Perhaps their presence in Prague will lead to increased aware and tighter controls - something far more valuable than a 10% commission. 

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