- VOICE.WALES SPEAKS TO THE PARTNER OF CAIO WYN AP RHYS. SHE SAYS THE YOUNG WORKER TOOK HIS LIFE AFTER A PAYROLL DISPUTE GOT THE COUPLE INTO SEVERE FINANCIAL TURMOIL
- LUXURY HOTELIER SIGNATURE LIVING’S TREATMENT OF CAIO, 20, CAUSED HIS MENTAL HEALTH TO NOSEDIVE, SHE CLAIMS
- VOICE.WALES REVEALED YESTERDAY THE PAINED EMAILS SENT FROM CAIO TO SIGNATURE LIVING WHICH SHOWED THE INCREASINGLY DESPERATE FINANCIAL SITUATION THE COUPLE WAS IN.
Interview by Mark S Redfern.
Yesterday voice.wales revealed the plight of Caio Wyn ap Rhys, a worker who struggled to get by on a meagre salary as a kitchen porter in the Coal Exchange luxury hotel in Cardiff from September 2019 until he took his life in early 2020.
After being promised a higher wage than the one that landed in his bank account, Caio pleaded back and forth with the company to get the back wages he worked for in emails published yesterday.
He ended his life on 7 January 2020. Prior to this, a number of payroll blunders landed Caio and his now-bereaved partner, Melody, in dire financial straits and spiralling towards homelessness, something he made Signature Living aware of.
Most complaints against the company have focused on people who have lost money from their various investor schemes, among them a Coronation Street star, but reports have often overlooked the workers employed by Signature Living.
voice.wales has seen the flood of support Melody received from other ex-members of staff who have suffered similar conditions to Caio, a work culture that affected their mental health and having to fight to get paid wages owed.
But also among these were a series of messages from newly-made accounts harassing Melody through her Facebook profile, which she dealt with whilst enduring the stress of Signature Living threatening legal action against anyone who repeated Melody’s account of the tragedy.
Melody, 19, has talked to voice.wales about the pain of losing a partner, the treatment she has suffered at the hands of Signature Living’s public relations barrage and how the couple struggled financially.
VOICE.WALES: What was the financial stress like for you two during this period?
MELODY: We literally fell into serious debt of about £3,000 with council tax and with our rent. It’s lucky we had a nice landlord that we were able to stay there that long. We were both working 7 days a week, ridiculous hours. And then we were still not able to eat. It was all empty promises. They kept saying, ‘you’ll be paid next month, you’ll be paid next month.’
Never happened. Never came. Every month [Caio] said it’ll be fine, it’ll be sorted next month. It wouldn’t be and very time that date came, the disappointment we both felt I can’t even describe it to you. Knowing that we’ve got to now explain to our landlord we can’t pay again, whilst you’re starving, no money for gas, no money for anything. The stress, the financial stress it put on us was unreal.
V: What impact did that have on Caio?
M: He was heartbroken. I thought I was bad but obviously he suffered from Bipolar disorder. He felt everything a million times more than a regular person would. I think he really wanted to believe they were going to pay him, he kept trying to convince himself and convince me it was actually going to be OK.
When they didn’t pay his mood would just drop. He would cry for days about it, and I would have to pick him up and try and come up with a plan. He would want to give up everytime they disappointed us, he just wanted to get it over and done with then.
V: What has the effect of Caio’s passing been on you?
M: I just feel like my life’s been destroyed. Me and him had so many plans together. Literally a week before he died we were talking about getting engaged, we were planning to have a family and we would have if this wouldn’t have happened. I feel like I’ve been completely robbed of the one thing I wanted. He just made me feel like I was normal and I wasn’t the only person like me in the world. He’s been taken away from me.
V: How are others who were close to Caio coping?
M: Everyone is heartbroken. I think we just felt like nobody was going to listen to us because it’s such a big company, our voices won’t be heard. A lot of us didn’t want to face it because we didn’t think it would get anywhere, so we just felt helpless.
V: And the effect of Signature Living’s accusations against you and Caio?
M: To have your character to be made out to be some horrible person, there’s no words for it. Heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken. I think I went a bit insane because I was so low I was thinking, ‘Am I this bad person they’re making me out to be?’
It took me a while to realise I did everything I could and they don’t even know me. They didn’t even know him, they just used him for his hard work. They can’t degrade my character like that. They have no idea of the stuff I did for him. I got PTSD from losing Caio, but the harassment after made it a tonne worse.
V: Who do you hold responsible for the situation?
M: I blame them [Signature Living]. I blame the money that’s not put into mental health services. But mainly I blame them, because they knew everything. They were constantly kept up to date of his moods, how he was feeling. Even I spoke to them. He kept them informed constantly of how low he was getting low moods and how this was affecting him. Even at the start of the job he informed them of his low moods, nervous breakdown, his episodes. But somehow they thought it was still a good way to treat him.
Signature Living were contacted for comment.
