Funtastic Entertainment Agency Chabah's EntertainmentAgency/Funtastic Entertainment/Agency Funtastic/Simone Swift/Richard Jackson/Backy Chabah Unproffesional, To be avoided Paphos Internet

I personally have worked for this agency - PLEASE AVOID WORKING FOR THEM!! THERE ARE LOADS OF PROFESSIONAL, FRIENDLY, RELIABLE AND SAFE PEOPLE TO WORK FOR OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was offered employment with Funtastic after telephone and e-mail correspondence. The position offered was for an Animator/Dancer, which is clearly written on the contract e-mail to me by the Agency. During the telephone conversations between myself and the Agency, the position was discussed and I was told it was to perform in the proffessional eveing shows at the Hotel, as well as daytime duties as a general entertainer within the Hotel. However, when I arrived at the Hotel and met my team members, they informed me I had been hired as ‘the Kids Club girl’ and it became apparent after further discussion that the vacancy I was filling was not the position I had agreed to and accepted. 

I wish to point out at this stage that during my troubles with Funtastic Entertainment Agency/Chabah’s Entertainment Agency I approached The Department of Labour in Cyprus with a copy of my contract and was told it was neither binding or even legal. I also told them I was working 8-10 hours a day, which prompted them to inform me that after 8 hours, any worker must recieve time and a half payment by Cyprus Law. I relayed this to the Agency and recieved a silent response, and was never paid time and a half.

For ease of reading, the following bullet points list various other problems I encoured as an employee of Funtastic Entertainment Agency/Chanbah’s Entertainment Agency.

• My first payment was due on Saturday 15^th June 2013 (contract states that payment shall be given on 15^th of every month), however I did not recieve payment until Tuesday 18^th June 2013. No reason was given for this, other than June 15^th being a Saturday.  (This was not the only time payment was late).

• On Tuesday 18^th June, when my payment finally arrived, it was 2 week’s short, and I was told this was due to a 2-week probationary period – I had never been made aware of such a period. When I raised this with the Agency, I was told first that it was in my contract, it wasn’t. I was then told that I had been informed of the probationary period during e-mail correspondence with the Agency – I re-read all such e-mails and nothing of this nature had been mentioned. It was only after telling the Agency this I recieved the missing money.

• During one time when payment was late, the situation became so dire I felt I had no choice but to go on strike and refrain from working until payment was recieved. I spoke with the Hotel Manager (who has since retired) and asked him for help in this situation, and he called the Agency and asked them to come to the Hotel immediately to discuss this. I agreed to return to my duties until the Agency arrived. I later discovered the Agency had come to the Hotel, but not seen me or even attempted contact. I returned the the Hotel Manager and informed him of the situation – he then rang the Agency again and asked them to come back, which they did. Upon thier arrival, the Agency manger called me and asked me to meet him to rectify the situation. I went to do so, along with my team. I was greeted by Lido Chabah (Agency manager) who had folded arms and an aggressive persona. He asked me to explain myself, which I began to do however, I was unable to finish as he began shouting over me that I had ‘no right to stop working’ and that he felt like not paying me at all ‘because of the trouble I caused’. He continued to fire questions at me, however I was never given the opourtunity to properly answer as he would shout over me any time I attempted to. He also told me my behaviour was due to the ‘influence’ of personal friendships between myself and other employees of Funtastic, and that if he saw certain other employees entering my apartment he would ‘burn the f*****g thing down’.  I was also told I was never to approach the Hotel Manager again under any circumstances. Needless to say, I felt totally threatened by Mr. Chabah within this situation. (There was also times during the season in which I witnessed him saying similar things to other Funtastic employees – twice telling one young female employee she had ‘half an hour to pack her things and get out’ of her apartment despite total awareness on his part she had aboslutely nowhere else to go and no money to fly home).

• There was no proffessional regard from the Agency concerning contact and/or meetings. We would often be ‘summonsed’ at moment’s notice via a telephone call for an imediate meeting, usually during break times. There was never any concern from the Agency that myself and other team members were clearly feeling exhausted, or that our resting time was being interuppted often for matters which could have been discussed at a later date via e-mail or telephone correspondence.

• There was an obvious need for extra staff within the Hotel Animation Team – when myself and my team raised this with the Agency, we were assured they had already hired an extra person and that he would be ariving within the next couple of weeks. This other person never materialised. When we asked the Agency about this, the response we recieved was that the new team member ‘let them down’ and they were working to find someone else. No mention of this ever arose again.

• Due to more rest time being needed, myself and my team felt we had no option but to take it upon ourselves to devise a new rota whereby we took individual evenings off so as to provide us with extra hours to sleep. We approached the Hotel Manager to discuss this, and it was agreed between the four of us (myself, my other team members and the manager of the Hotel) that this was fair. We approached the manager of the Hotel due to not being able to arrange a meeting with the Agency and were told the Hotel also struggled to organise meetings with the Agency. When the Agency got to hear of this, we were told we had ‘no right’ to take it upon ourselves to do this – however after discussion with the Agency, the support of the Hotel Managment saw us recieving the self-arranged evenings off.   

• Within the last 6 weeks of the contract, it was put to us as the Animation Team that we were to work in the evenings of our only day off every week. I personally refused, due to it being written in my contract that I would work 6 days a week with one full day off.

• Throughout my contract, I requested to recieve pay slips when payment was given, and that I would recieve my money via bank transfer.  It was only when my second wage was given (15^th July 2013) that it was done so via bank transfer – all other times were either by cheque (meaning I didnt actually recieve payment until a week after said cheque being given due to clearing time on the bank’s part) or by cash – something I continually informed the Agency I did not want as I had given them my bank details for payment purposes. Only on 1^st November 2013 (one day after my contract finished) did I recieve pay slips from the Agency.

• My contract stated that the Agency would keep €50 back from every payment as ‘trust money’ and I would recieve this on the date of completion of contract (31^st October 2013). On my last day, I telephoned the Agency and asked what time they would be coming to the Hotel to pay me – the response I got was ‘what gave you the impression I was coming today?’ I did not recieve payment until 1^st November 2013.

• Included within my contract was a provided uniform. The uniform we were given was not fit for purpose. There was only ever t-shirts - we were expected to provide our own bottoms completely. Only one top from the nine given fitted me properly – the others were out of shape, shrunk, ‘hard’, and some even stained from previous use. My team and I approched the Agency over this and were assured new uniform had been ordered. We asked continually over a number of weeks when said new uniform would arrive, however it never did – as a result we were reduced to wearing our own clothes.

• It was also part of my contract that accomodation was provided, however the apartment I was given raised several problems for me and my housemates during our time there.

• Upon my arrival, there was no electricity at all meaning I was unable to inform my family I had arrived safely or even take a shower after 8 hours of travelling. It was also obvious there had been no regard given for the clenliness of the apartment, forcing me to have to thoroughly clean before being able to even unpack. After I had been there a few hours, Mr. Chabah came to my apartment to fix the electric – he did not introduce himself and it was not until a couple of weeks later when he came to the Hotel that I became aware he was my manager.
• The toilet did not flush properly.
• Three light bulbs were missing – it was only after three weeks of asking new ones were provided.
• The oven did not work – food was provided for me by the Hotel, however the other two occupants of the apartment at the time were forced to either eat out daily or find other people within the apartment block who would allow them to use thier ovens/cookers. Also, no utensils, crokery or cutlery were provided.
• Plug sockets were hanging out of the walls or did not work at all – this was never rectified.
• The washing machine continually broke down – it took 6 weeks for the Agency to provide a new one with no responsability taken for the fact we were forced to use our own money to do our washing in Launderettes.
• No air conditoning or fans were provided by the Agency, thus forcing myself and the other occupants to borrow fans from the Hotel when it became too hot for us to be able to sleep or even be inside comfortably.

I never felt there was any care or responsibility taken by the Agency where employees were concerned. Myself and other employees regularly felt completely bullied and belittled by Mr. Chabah and his persona, resulting in feeling that problems were unlikely to get sorted and that we sometimes weren’t in a position to stick up for ourselves due to fear of our employer and his threats.

I hope this is of use to you.