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CSS Stellar fires PFD agents

29.10.07 Joel Rickett

CSS Stellar has fired 11 agents at Peters Fraser & Dunlop and launched an investigation into "apparent inconsistencies in the payment of commissions and bonuses to certain employees". In an update to shareholders, CSS also claimed that it was in "discussions with numerous established talent agents eager to join the firm."

The agents who have been fired had all previously handed in their resignations, but were working out their notice at the company. They are planning to form a rival agency called United Agents. In September CSS dismissed Maureen Vincent and St John Donald, the joint managing directors of PFD who had also handed in their notice.

In the new statement, CSS says it has been investigating "apparent inconsistencies" in payments to some agents in recent months, and is now to widen the investigation back to 1st January 2005. It has appointed external accountants to carry out the probe. It added: "When the investigation is complete, the company will decide on the appropriate means available to it to recover any monies wrongly paid."

However, a source close to the departed agents said that that the allegations were false. "It is complete piffle." He denied there were any accounting irregularities at PFD, and argued they were a "cobbled together excuse" by CSS Stellar to fire the agents. "But it's an act of folly because it renders [CSS] liable for unfair dismissal and breach of contract."

CSS added that it was "recruiting new agents to strengthen its team of dedicated and talented agents and assistants", without giving any names.
 

Todays Picks Joel Rickett PFD CSS Stellar

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By steve handley

I wonder if CSS Stellar sacked StJohn Donald by e-mail, which is how he dumped me after13 years as a writer on PFD's books.

29 Oct 07 16:43

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By Simon Stirling

I was the first client to be taken on by St John Donald and I left after twelve years. The whole industry had ceased to be about getting the job done and was solely about 'business'. PFD is a victim of the same corporate culture that has given us the TV phonelines scam and other frauds - a dash for cash which sees the interests of accountants, shareholders and executives as of far higher importance than the needs of the client or the consumer. There have been many victims of this cultural shift along the way - PFD and its agents are just the high-profile latest - and perhaps we should be hearing more from those whose careers have been blighted or ruined by the industry's loss of integrity and direction. Realistically, this issue is not about the management of PFD: it is about creativity and culture, as opposed to corporate capitalism, and the truth is we have all been losers in this battle.

30 Oct 07 11:01

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