LEARN FROM OUR
BITTER EXPERIENCE
First let me say
OUR PROBLEMS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FRENCH.
My husband and I moved, lock, stock and barrel, to France 6 years ago
when my husband took up a new post as Anglican Chaplain to a
congregation of ex-pat Brits in a part of France I shall not
identify.
Unlike chaplaincies in the UK if you work in Europe you are actually,
legally, employed not by the diocese but by the local church council.
They also are responsible for your salary, health cover and
expenses. We were interviewed and agreed terms and conditions, which
were in line with diocesan requirements and my husband signed the
contract of employment. It seemed a good move since we are hoping to
retire to France where we have a house and family. My husband took
early retirement and a reduced pension in order to accept the post.
We sold our car to help with expenses.
There was no housing provided but a housing allowance and a
chaplaincy car were promised in the contract. A member of one of the
four congregations which made up the chaplaincy had offered the loan
of their holiday house for as long as needed so we thought we were
sorted. Otherwise how could we have found somewhere to live before
we moved?
The chaplaincy council had pleaded poverty so we did an almost
do-it-yourself removal....not really a good idea when you are of
pension age. We were promised a team of strong men to help unload so
we made do with one removal van and its driver. Our son and his son
helped load; my husband got up at 5am the next day to drive down
with the van; our son and I travelled by train.
We were met at the French station and fortunately I had the foresight
to ask if they would stop for some supermarket shopping …. after
all I could hardly have carried a week's shopping on the train and
the van couldn't possibly be unloaded until the following morning.
It was just as well I did because when we arrived it was a dark,
cold, wet November night and not only had no-one bothered to put on
the heating in the house or to provide any food (not even teabags)
but we later discovered the house was in a tiny hamlet which had
neither cafe nor boulangerie. I'm not sure what we would have done
if I hadn't asked for a shopping stop!
As my husband arrived in the van our chauffeur began asking for the
key to the chaplaincy car (as if we would know where it was) because
there was something in the car which he needed and he was in a hurry.
Some welcome.
Needless to say no-one turned up the next day to help unload so my
husband, son and the 70 year old van driver had to do the whole
thing. They were absolutely done in by 6pm. One member of the
congregations had popped in to say 'hello' and leave a bottle of wine
but that was it. No-one from the church council so much as phoned to
see if we were OK or if we needed anything. We should have realised
then what a huge mistake we had made. No-one from the council called
in or phoned at all during the first few weeks.
Things got no better. No-one helped us find accommodation. There we
were in a foreign country with no real idea of where the best
location would be for the chaplaincy house....the 'parish' is the
size of Yorkshire so it would have been helpful to have advice. (Our
house in France is no where near the chaplaincy area.)
We felt that the holiday house wasn't really suitable for a long stay
because we had to cram all our furniture in with what was already
there in a fully furnished house. Every outhouse and the attic were
full of our stuff and when my husband needed reference books he had
to climb over boxes as he tried to locate what he needed. This is
not to be ungrateful to the house owners. They were incredibly
generous, based in the UK, and after we had moved out they refused to
let us pay for electricity, gas, heating, telephone or anything else.
We did find a suitable house but being a French let there was no
cooker or any laundry machines in place though we were fortunate to
find one with kitchen units. Most French rentals do not have kitchen
units in place. Most have just a sink, no unit or cupboards.
My husband contacted the church treasurer because we had not been
paid the housing allowance on the grounds that we were staying rent
free in the holiday house but now we had found a suitable rental we
needed to pay a deposit and the first month's rent in advance.
Imagine how we felt when we were told that the chaplaincy would not
help at all. Where did they think we would find that much money? It
came out of our savings, which were, and still are, not very big.
There should have been a moving in allowance but we didn't get it and
we didn't realise we should have had it until years later! So we
were really out of pocket by the time we had moved and settled in.
At least the chaplaincy paid the second removals and this time we had
a proper firm to do the job.
About that time I really needed to see a doctor but we found we had
no health cover. 100% health cover for the chaplain and his family
is a diocesan requirement and was clearly stated in the contract but
the treasurer did everything he could not to pay this. The
chaplaincy council was indifferent. We had a real battle on our
hands and the council was certainly in an illegal position but they
couldn't see that they were my husband's employer and had legal
responsibilities. I couldn't go to the doctor because I had no idea
what it would cost as I knew I needed tests of some sort. It was
rather frightening and we were getting increasingly alarmed at our
position. My husband also had no pay slips. The treasurer argued
churches didn't need them He was clearly wrong but never budged his
position. We never saw a pay slip. We don't know if any pension contributions were made.
After much heated discussion, heart ache and desperation ten months
after taking up his post we got our health cover. 10 months it had
taken. Mind you it wasn't 100% cover; that took 14 months in total
and by then we had decided to leave and my husband had already seen
the appointments adviser in London.
I started work at the local university in the September so I had 100%
health cover from them and so could get the medication I needed, 10
months after moving.
Why didn't we get help??? Where from?? We rang the relevant
department in the UK and were told 'It seems to me that you are an
illegal worker and I cannot talk to you'.... how helpful was that!
We met with the British consul but she did absolutely nothing at all.
We got in touch with the diocese and the archdeacon was not helpful
at all. He did eventually come to visit but he arranged a meeting
with the council, including lunch and a communion service to which
neither I nor my husband were invited!
My husband saw a local solicitor and he had hardly started to explain
the position when the solicitor stopped him, saying he knew exactly
why he was there. He was not the first chaplain to be sitting there
pouring out the same tale of woe. We couldn't decide whether to be
appalled that this was an on-going situation or relieved that it
wasn't just us who had suffered like this.
There were other pretty dreadful things to contend with as well. One
winter evening I was checking our bank account when I realised there
had been neither stipend nor housing allowance paid for that month.
It was the 6th so the payments were a week late, and the
6th is when our standing orders go out to cover rent,
local taxes, phone, electricity etc. You are not allowed to go
overdrawn in France so I had a bit of a panic. As far as I knew the
treasurer was still on his winter cruise. My husband was out on
parish business. I rang the helpful churchwarden but she was out.
So I rang the unhelpful churchwarden and the conversation went
something like this:
Me Sorry to ring but D hasn't been paid. It's the 6th and
our standing orders are going out today.
Her Do you know what time it is? It's very late.
Me Yes it is late... a week late. The treasurer is on holiday and we
have not been paid.
Her You are not employed by the chaplaincy council.
Me No, but my husband is and he's not been paid.
Her Well, he can ring at the proper time in the morning.
And she hung up!
I was almost incandescent with rage. What were we to do? Would we
be in trouble with the bank? By the time my husband came in I was
almost in tears of rage and frustration.
We discussed options, which boiled down to us having to ring the
helpful churchwarden at 7.30am because I knew she had an 8am class at
the University. She was super and met D in town at the bank and
handed him cash to tide us over. It later transpired that the
treasurer had a convoluted system of taking money from one account to
another and then making the payment. We had assumed, wrongly, that
there was a standing order in place so that the stipend was always
paid on time.
The system remained in place, we never had an apology from anyone
and, on the whole, we were considered to be a nuisance. The
prevailing attitude was that of servant and master.
One dark, cold February Tuesday night we were coming back from a
meeting when the chaplaincy car conked out in the middle of no-where.
Thanks goodness for mobile phones. The tow truck was there in 30
minutes and the insurance covered a taxi home and a week's taxi.
Unfortunately the insurance only allowed for one week's taxi. The
car was so old that it wasn't worth repairing so the treasurer
decided, without a council meeting, that he would buy another car
with chaplaincy funds. He was so determined not to spend another
penny on taxis he rushed into a decision and bought a 7 year old car
for more than a new one would have cost. It even came complete with
artistic dents.
Then he tried to force us to agree to pay more for our personal use.
We refused. Terms and conditions are reviewed in January each year
and it was well past January. We were already paying a high mileage
charge and it was not acceptable. Threats were made. It was
unbelievable.
Thankfully we moved back to the UK. The chaplaincy had to pay for
our return because they had breached the contract. That's all I'm
going to write otherwise you, the reader, will lose the will to live!
But be wary if you move to France to work for ex-pats........they
may not know employment law and they may not even care.
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