A former M19 employee told Cybersport.ru about the massive reduction in the company and salary arrears. According to business development manager Maxim Dvoryanchikov, the club’s leadership violated several points of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, and the dispute over the official group on VKontakte turned into a threat to one of the employees. Cybersport.ru understands the conflict of the parties.
In January, information appeared on the network that the e-sports organization M19 suspended its activities due to funding problems. Then the club’s general director Andrei Mikheev explained that the M19 will continue to work, but in a new format. It turned out that some of the current staff continued to perform under this tag, but many office staff fell under the reduction, being left without work and the promised payments.
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Andrey Mikheev, CEO of M19 | Photo: facebook.com/andrei.mikheev.186
According to Dvoryanchikov, in January Mikheev at a general meeting announced the termination of work with the subsequent liquidation of the organization. Management promised employees to pay only an advance for January. The manager said that the employees were also asked to write a statement “of their own free will,” which, according to him, contradicts part 2 of article 180 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
When employees asked why they were not notified of their dismissal in advance according to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, they received an answer: “It happens …”. As a result, about ten people were left without money and work – managers of marketing, design, accounting, sales, and accountants. At the time of publication of the material, wage retention lasts more than 15 days, which violates another article of the Labor Code.
To achieve payouts, M19 employees wrote a letter to Evgeny Tugolukov, the founder of Strongbow, Singapore, who has been the main investor of M19 since 2016. There was no answer from Tugolukov, but after that the club owner Andrei Mikheev promised to “close the debts on payments as much as possible” after receiving money from the counterparties. Mikheev also warned that this money may not be at all “due to inflation in the market and complaints.”
According to the editorial board of the M19 business development manager, in order to protect their interests, the former employees left under their control the official M19 group in VKontakte. They suspended the work of the community and removed the rights of administrators from the management until the situation with debts was resolved. At the time of publication of the material, the last entry in the group’s feed is dated January 30, and the number of public subscribers exceeds 38 thousand people.
After the incident with the group, M19 CEO Andrei Mikheev in personal correspondence called the head of the club’s social media department “a rat that must be taught not only by law.” He also indicated the home address of the employee, which the latter perceived as a threat. Cybersport.ru has copies of this correspondence. In a comment for the site, the club owner explained his position as follows:
“Is he [сотрудник SMM] it can perceive as anything, his right. The message was that the transfer of legal money and legal rights should take place in person, since the employee actually stole and does not transmit data belonging to the company. Accordingly, there is no trust, as well as confidence that upon receipt of funds he will return everything remotely. ”
When asked whether the club plans to pay its debts, Mikheev replied that “so far the company has no funds,” and all issues and conflicts will be resolved in accordance with the law.
“The M19 Agency division did have a situation in which the company is not able to pay funds to employees and conduct further activities. There is a conflict with the group, provoked by employees. In the near future both issues will be resolved at the legislative level. ”
According to Dvoryanchikov, former M19 employees sent documents to the labor inspectorate and are going to defend their rights in court.
The first information about M19 debts appeared in December 2019, when League of Legends squad manager Vladlen Saviour Dvoretsky said that the club did not pay the prize for the summer split LCL Summer 2019. Five days after the announcement of the situation, the M19 fully settled with the players. You can read more about this here.
