My work truck got clamped 2 weeks ago and after checking with the sheriff it turns out I owe the government $8000 in unpaid citylink fines. The kicker is it all has to be paid in one hit as the truck is in my company name. No payment plans for a company.
I have an E tag and pay around $350 a month in tolls as I drive for a living. I've paid city link thousands in tolls. I have 24 infringements from a time that a direct debit didn't go through 2 years ago. Called city link and the friendly lady in Manila told me that they would take the outstanding amount in the next debit. Then I started getting letters from civic compliance telling me to pay which I didn't as the account was in good standing.
Turns out that city link refer unpaid matters to civic compliance and after that the matter is out of their hands. So basically I was told a lie and now have to cough up $8000.
As much as I have been enjoying my time off work while playing scratchies in the hope of raising $8000 its got me wondering.
How does a publicly listed company like CityLink get to use civic compliance to collect debt from the public and impose penalties for late payments?
Why don't City Link give back to the community and employ local call centre operators instead of the ones in Manila?
This post is not about you did the crime now pay the fine. I have no choice, have to pay the fine or I'm in the welfare line. As a small business I would love to use civic compliance to fine the living shit out of late payers. How do I sign up?
The short answer to 'how do they get away with it' is that the Victorian legislature passed legislation to allow them to outsource to private contractors. Yes, it's outrageous that the government uses this backdoor method to hire workers overseas in call centre sweatshops at sub-minimum wages instead of Australian workers.
You might want to write to your MP and the Transport Minister and complain about this and urge that all state government 'requests for tender' or other similar procurements include a condition that only Australian based labour can be used unless special skills which are unavailable in Australia are required. (For example, a specialised type of software that can't be made in Australia.)
As for your personal predicament you may wish to read the part of the legislation about how infringement notices can be cancelled if you weren't aware of them: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/ia2006161/… note: this is not legal advice: I have no way of knowing for certain under which Act you were issued an infringement notice. I'm just guessing that section 86 of the Citylink Act http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/mcla19952… which allows Citylink to use s37 of the Infringements Act is how they did it.
You'd be wise to Google the Registrar's website and also drop into their office and VERY politely ask for the form and filing fee and any other info you can get about making such an application. You might also search around for lawyers who specialise in this sort of thing. IF it's a simple application to make and there's a local solicitor who does them all the time then you might be able to get it done for an amount less than 8K thereby making it worthwhile to hire someone. You could ring the law society and ask if there any such specialists, Google and check the ads in your local paper etc or just try to do it yourself if it seems simple enough after you do a little research as outlined above.
HTH