Kode Technologies did not pay off contractors after the dismissal. CEO doesn't get in touch after questions about non — payment-DOU investigation

On August 3, Ukrainian UX/UI designer Anastasia Koval posted a message on LinkedIn that Kode Technologies did not pay her money for two months of work after her dismissal. When the specialist tried to contact the CEO, her emails were ignored.

As a result, the designer did not receive payment. It turned out that the company had already had this before.

The DOU journalist understood the situation.

If there is no response to the email, there is no payment either

The story of non-payment to the designer began in May 2022, when she did not receive payment for the previous month of work at Kode Technologies.

At that time, as it becomes known from the message, Koval worked for the company for a year and a half. Despite the delay in compensation, she worked at Kode Technologies in June, but on July 11, she announced her dismissal in a letter to the company's CEO Agil Bjornson and asked her to calculate for the last two months of work, for which she did not receive a salary at that time.

The CEO has not made contact, and the specialist has not yet received money for her work.

Financial difficulties or leadership style?

We talked to Anastasia Koval to find out the details. According to her, after the dismissal, which she notified the company's CEO Agil Bjornson in a letter, he never got in touch with her. In her opinion, the problem with payment arose either because of the family circumstances of the management, or because of the war, because three clients left the company.:

"But, as my colleagues assured me, several new projects appeared in the company in May. Therefore, there should be no problems with payment."

The ex-designer of Kode Technologies noted that the last time she was paid was in mid-May — it was a payment for April:

"We discussed everything with the CEO, it seems that everything should be fine. I worked until June 6, then went on paid leave for ten days, which I warned about back in May. Then she returned to her duties. I worked until July 11. But the last few weeks have not been active enough in terms of the tasks that I was assigned. The CEO hasn't contacted me since June 6," says Anastasia Koval.

The designer explains that she planned to remind about the May payment, when she will receive money for June, because it is difficult to contact the CEO — all specialists work remotely, so communication takes place through correspondence. But in the end, I didn't see any funds for either may or June.

In support of her words, the former UX/UI specialist of Kode Technologies provided screenshots of correspondence in which she informs about her dismissal and several times appeals to the CEO of the company with a request to pay.

According to her, earlier there were no delays in payment — contractors were paid funds within five days. The payment day was every last Friday of the month.

After Anastasia Koval wrote to the CEO about her dismissal with a request to pay for her work, she was removed from all the team's chats and all her accounts were deleted. In addition, the designer noted that she received the job through a recruitment company, whose representatives, having learned about the situation, sent a reminder to the head of Kode Technologies about the need to pay. However, the recruitment company also did not receive a response.

Koval told us that after the publication of the message in the social network, none of her colleagues contacted her.

The specialist suggests that in the future she may apply to the court with a claim. But there are difficulties in this issue, because the contract that it concluded with Kode Technologies is regulated by British law, since the company is registered in the UK.

Koval also noted that a former client of the company responded to her message, who said that the CEO took the money, but the company has not yet provided the product (there is correspondence in the editorial office in which the client talks about this).

The situation is not unique

On condition of anonymity, we spoke with another former contractor, Kode Technologies, who worked as a PM from February to November 2021.

According to her, there were no delays in payment during work — everything happened within the framework of agreements.

"Since November last year, I have received letters that I am being fired because the company is having a hard time, we do not agree on approaches to work, and my performance is not what the CEO expected. I didn't mind, because at that time I had to get out of it in front of clients who couldn't get their apps, and the CEO just ignored them. So I agreed and issued an invoice for October, which I was not paid for. Also, under the dismissal contract, the CEO had to notify 14 days in advance, and this time is also required to pay. But I didn't hear anything more from him. And after the second reminder letter, I just decided not to pay attention."

As noted by ex-contractor Kode Technologies, the CEO of the company stopped contacting, blocked all her accounts and accesses. According to the expert, the debt amounted to 3 3,000 for a month and a half of work.:

"We had a contract, I worked as a sole proprietor, all through invoices. But the business is registered in the UK, and the CEO is an Icelander. So even technically getting something would be problematic."

As of now, the money has not been sent to her.

After the publicity, did the CEO delete his email?

As indicated on the company's website, Kode Technologies is a team of designers, developers, and software experts who create technologies for startups and businesses.

The company specializes in creating mobile and web applications. The website also states that, in addition to London, the company has locations in the United Arab Emirates and Brazil.

According to the analytical system youcontrol, the company was registered in London (UK) in May 2020. Agil Bjornson is listed as the director.

Youcontrol Screenshots

According to Anastasia Koval, the company is small — it employed up to 20 specialists, all remotely, mainly from Ukraine. On LinkedIn, only eight people, including Bjornson, marked this place of work on the company's page.

In addition, we found the Kode Technologies Instagram page, which is not active enough. It contains only 12 messages, the last one is dated April 4.

To find out the position of CEO Agil Bjornson, we wrote an email to the email address listed on the Kode Technologies website, as well as in private messages to him on LinkedIn. There was no response from him on the social network, and the email returned with a note that the email address was not found. Probably, after the situation was made public, the CEO of Kode Technologies could have deleted the email account.

DOU editors are ready to publish the company's position if Kode Technologies management provides it.

The Author Is Elena Chernyshova.