Sadly, I think you will just have to chalk it up to "He's such a jerk" and not waste energy on it.

Yes, there were a dozen ways that they could have forwarded it to you. In fact, you should still get the original copies. Go get them today, if you can. Or call to say when you will come pick them up.

But, in an office, lots of mail comes in daily and people responsible for processing the mail usually just open them all one-by-one without even thinking for a minute that it might be misaddressed. When you have a stack of mail that is almost 100% of the time correctly addressed, you don't waste time looking at the Addressee every time.

So, someone opened it, took it out to decide what needed to be done and .... oh, shit! It's a bank statement of a former employee! Now what?

It's an honest mistake. *You* made the initial mistake by not changing the forwarding and so you will be hard pressed to put the blame on anyone else's shoulders.

They were kind enough to scan it and forward it so that you had the info as soon as possible. You can (and should) get the originals.

But, don't make a scene. Don't accuse. Just be gracious and be done with it.

And then change your forwarding order. Fast.

Quite normal i think you'd find .. 
We are told that everything coming to the mailroom will be opened, regardless of "personal" or "confidential" or whatever..

If i don't want it opened, i don't send it to work,

Well yea if it was a big office with hundreds of employees and a mailroom maybe. Whenever we had personal mail coming in it was handed to us personally. There is only 6 people working there, with the boss included atm, so I doubt they have thousands of letters coming in daily.

And I doubt it is an honest mistake. I have had tons of issues with this delusional thief for months and months now so I am sure this was deliberate!! I will forward this to my union person and see what the deal is.

The same thing happened to me...TWICE! Once in a sublet that went wrong (like most Geneva sublets!) and the other was with a former employer, who opened my letters and scanned it to me months later then sent it in the mail with the wrong address. 

Unfortunately nothing you can do, but maybe spread the word about what a crappy company/people you worked with. The other option which is what I chose was to take the high road and thank God I got out of a bad situation!

I would definitely look into this, it is indeed illegal, and can be extremely illegal depending on situations. Zonker is right that you should have changed your address, but that doesnt give them a free pass to open it, read it and send a copy to you (what is to say they didnt take any details or amend any details, unlikely but you get the gist)

If I had had bad dealings with the person that did this, I would definitely search out possibilities. You have to remember they have all the information from that mail, and being a bank statement...not great. Though if this information as ever to surface for whatever reason, then, my word, you could go to town on them. 

But yes, i hope you've changed the address now 

It is in fact NOT illegal, I looked into it and there is nowhere in the law that says it illegal. Immoral yes, uncouth yes, but not illegal. The porblem is, is that you mandated the bank to send it to that address, the onus is on you as the account holder. 

If anyone can find a place in the law that proves my point wrong I would be very interested!

Thanks :) 

Are you for real? quote 'I decided to have my mail sent to the office'. And there are hundreds working in the same organization?

So buck up and accept that any big organizatin will just be opening mail without any problem.

Further did you ask them to forward your mail, and indicate you will cover the cost? If not, your lucky they scanned them, because they could have just trashed/binned them, as you had a poor departure as you indicated.

They have no legal obligation whatsoever.

Word of advice, never send mail to an employers address. Dispite that you have been moving several times, for whatever reasons

Dave G - She then says 6 people in the office. If one cant tell that the name on something is not 1 of the 6, i think even opening letters is above ones paygrade. Either way, relax Dave, too early in the week... :)

Angie - It is definitely illegal, just because you ok something being sent there, doesnt mean they have the right to open it, unless it is in the name of the company and not the individual. If you had sent a clothing delivery to an office and came in to find people wearing your clothes, would that be legal? I think not. 

Farzam, It is not Illegal if it was addressed to the office. You are giving incorrect information and advice. I know this because I was an Director / administrator for over 4000 companies in one office/mailing address. Opening mail by mistake is a mistake but legally you cant do anything against the company, even so you would have to prove damages. That would almost be impossible unless you stell money from ones bank account or steal clients or other. Stick with communications, because your no swiss lawyer.

If it was addressed to another address or received by a neighbor, then they should put 'Incorrect address', cross out the address and just put in any mail box, then the post office needs to determine what to do.

Actually I never said anything about damages, but because it is mostly frowned upon doesnt mean it is something that cant be looked into. It will just mostly laughed out because no damage has been made or as you mention can be shown to have be caused unless they do something stupid. 

Well done buddy, 1 for working for administering over 4000 companies, which makes your comparison not similar at all (4000 companies vs 6 people in a room) and 2 for keeping the attitude. I see those 4000 companies didnt teach you any manners. 

I have had some mail sent inadvertantly to an old office here in Geneva and them and the bank (who's fault it actually was) were desperate to get the address fixed because of the liability if someone opened it. This was a company with 100 people in the office. Not one piece was ever open, because they remembered my name and just forwarded it in a new envelope with my address on it. So I might not be a lawyer but experience is what i was going on. Plus in most countries it is illegal. 

if you move into a new house and the old tenants letter come through, you can only open them if it is a utility bill to do with the house, not any old letter.

But thanks again for your tone and going into my profile to find a specific dig. Immature with older age. Nice combo.

 

Farzam- I think your confusing immoral with illegal. Take it from someone who studied law and married to a lawyer. I wish it was illegal then I would have two cases on my hands! 

If you mandated the delivery then it is totally fine. It is in poor taste to open it thats all. 

I know how Siver feels, this happened to me twice. Nothing can be done...well maybe a sharp letter or email?

Lets not get emotional about this glocalers...its only Tuesday...at lets face it...worser crimes have been commited in the work place!

Banks mistake = their liability.

Your mistake = your liability

Lets not get emotional over a letter guys...your acting like girls! ;)

Well Farzam ,

its not helpfull when you provide incorrect information, giving false hope, further with inexepriance of Swiss law advice, immature and inexperienced with younger age or newbie to CH, further communication expert I doubt. that is a like the 7 year itch combo. Oh, pretty face, unhelpful, and mush for experience. Im not your buddy, Im so tired of the bull out of peoples .....

Oh it is now midweek, end of tuesday.

Angie is right each time , i like the 'Your mistake = your liability'

Thanks Angie, yeah, im joan collins in a mans body today :P heheehhe needing some chocolate

When I first started there and the boss asked me what address to put for the permit application, I gave her the current address that I had but also told her I was moving out in 2 weeks time. She told me in that case we should put the office address otherwise I would have to change it at the OCP office every time I moved to a new place which also costs about 60chf each time and just messy. She also told me the other employees did the same. So since several people in the office did this it was never an issue to have someone put the letters on ones desk. (I lived in 5 different places during a year, so yea, there was no point in changing the address at the OCP office every single time).

If she never opened my or anyone elses mail before, why would she do it now. Surely it was addressed to the office BUT WITH MY NAME ON IT. I know it was not done by accident. The bitch is malicious.

I cannot believe it is legal to open other's mail. In most countries it is not. Any lawyers around to answer the question?

Just to help :

http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/fr/home/topics/intorg/un/unge/gepri/manlab.html

I might suggest you get a P.O. Box / Case Postale to avoid any problems in the future, go see your most local La Post office and see if they have one available:

http://www.poste.ch/post-startseite/post-privatkunden/post-empfangen/post-empfangen-postfach.htm

Why should it be illegal? My tenant's mail kept coming after he left, for sometime while he was in geneva I kept his mail and gave it to him and it was my kindness and when he moved back to his own country I threw away his mail, could have opened it as well, I reminded him several times to change the address.  It was his responsibility to change his address in all relevant  places. No need for a lawyer, it's simple common sense. 

You can also ask the post to forward your mail to you for a maximum of one year to any address you want. It can be even another country. When I left CH for 6 months once, I paid fhe post office to forward my mail and for the whole time everything came to my overseas address. If something is important to you then you must arrange for it. I still consider the scanning their kindness. 

Then you should at least be able to sue her in case OCP finds out and fines you for not respecting Swiss immigration law (registering with a legal residential address, and notifying the authorities of any change within 14 days of the change).

Okay Mona, it was ONE letter. Not 50. And I do not need my mail forwarded as I have changed the address at the OCP a long time ago.

Stephanie, lol @ Swiss immigration law.

If they opened your letter in purpose, why on earth would they be so stupid to let you know?
Even if you had a lot of trouble with them, they are still humans, and humans do make mistakes.

Any mail addressed to an enterprise belongs by default to that enterprise, even if it includes the name of an employee. The exeption is if it is evident that is private. (see below)

A hypothetical example of why this has to be the case is if I were a sales rep, of a big company, selling to an important client. Since the client knows that I'm their contact, they address all orders to me. If I now were to quit my employer, and jouin a competitor, should my old employer forward all the orders from my old client to my new company? This would be ludicrous.

According to the federal data protection administration, private mail (electronic or postal) is protected, if it is clearly marked as being private, but it is not enough to have teh employees name on the address, for it to be defined as private.

http://www.edoeb.admin.ch/datenschutz/00763/00807/00827/index.html?lang=fr

Le secrétariat a le droit d'ouvrir le courrier de nature professionnelle. Le courrier privé qui est adressé à un collaborateur à son lieu de travail fait l'objet d'une protection illimitée. Il va de soi que la nature privée d'une lettre ou d'un colis doit être visible d'emblée.
Un certain nombre d'éléments permettent de déterminer si une lettre ou un colis est de nature privée : la lettre ou le colis peut comporter une mention explicite signalant qu'il s'agit d'un envoi privé. La nature privée d'un envoi peut aussi être déduite de l'adressage (Jean Dupont, c/o Entreprise SA) ; toutefois, le fait que le nom de la personne figure avant le nom de l'entreprise, sur une lettre, ne suffit pas pour déterminer que l'envoi est de nature privée : il faut qu'il y ait expressément une mention telle que « Personnel », « Privé » ou « c/o ». Lorsque des caractéristiques telles que la couleur ou les dimensions de la lettre indiquent clairement qu'il s'agit d'une lettre privée, celle-ci doit être transmise à la personne concernée sans être ouverte. En cas de doute, il faut transmettre la lettre sans l'ouvrir (en l'accompagnant éventuellement d'une note).

The moral of this is that if you use your employer's address for private mail, you should use the address format "yourname c/o companyname"

Exactly what I used..

Based on your posts here, I would not take legal advice from you as you clearly have no clue of the actual law:

Art. 179

2.1 Strafbare Handlungen gegen den Geheim- oder Privatbereich.

Verletzung des Schriftgeheimnisses

Wer, ohne dazu berechtigt zu sein, eine verschlossene Schrift oder Sendung öffnet, um von ihrem Inhalte Kenntnis zu nehmen,

wer Tatsachen, deren Kenntnis er durch Öffnen einer nicht für ihn bestimmten verschlossenen Schrift oder Sendung erlangt hat, verbreitet oder ausnützt,

wird, auf Antrag, mit Busse bestraft.

2.1 Offences in breach of privacy or secrecy.

Breach of the privacy of a sealed document

Any person who without authority opens a sealed document or sealed mail in order to obtain knowledge of its content,

any person who disseminates or makes use of information he has obtained by opening a sealed document or sealed mail that was not intended for him,

is liable on complaint to a fine.

-----------------

The important part is in bold. So you would have to prove, that they opened it in order to obtain knowledge of its content, which would be nearly impossible.

I think you should tell us which company you worked at, the name of your former boss, but most importantly, can you post the scan of the letter so we can know what it was about?

Stephanie it is not illegal to have your permit issued with the address of your office since sometimes it takes months or even a year to get an address in Geneva. so she cannot sue for that.

Seems like you are just out to get them for revenge. I feel for you really do but I don't think it is worth wasting your time and energy. They can argue that they opened it by mistake and when they realised it was yours they contacted you. I also think since it is your responsibility to change your address you should just accept that it will not get you far.

And you deduce this "knowledge" from...?

It is very common. Many times the employer has to apply for the permit of the employee and they use their address.  I had an intern who was renting a room from me and her permit was c/o her employer address. There are many people who don't have a fixed residence and they keep renting rooms and some even stay in hotels and residences for sometime before getting a place and they use employer's address. 

Ok, that's what they do. I now suggest you to ask the authorities what they think about it.

I think you two are not talking about the same thing.

Marcy S. : "Stephanie it is not illegal to have your permit issued with the address of your office since sometimes it takes months or even a year to get an address in Geneva. so she cannot sue for that."

With the first part, I have no problem. If you live in Berlin and apply for a permit in Geneva. You don't have to give a resident address here, as in most cases, you won't already have an address here. You can use the address of a friend or of the company you are applying for.

But when you arrive here, you have to keep your adress updated at the authorities, even if it cost something and is "messy".

100% your fault!

very lucky you had a nice boss,He/she did the best for you to have the letter!

Question: What do you do when you receive letters at your address, but for a person who used to live with you but not anymore? Some of the letters are adressed to him only and some are c/o my name. Is there any way to let the companies know that this person doesnt live there anymore? Doing it himself is not an option as he has left the country.

you can wrote on the letter that that person doesn't live any more at this address and send it back to who send it first.

(not sure I'm clear on this one)

*write* not *wrote* ....

I don't think you even have to explicitly send it back (with a stamp etc.)

What I've done is simply write on the envelope "inconnu à cette addresse", and put it in the mailbox.

But that's in France, don't know about CH.

Thanks thats what i will do then. That settles the letters that actually have an address on them. What about the ones that come in a plain envelope? Do i do the same and let the post office sort it out?

Why can't he inform the companies himself of his change of address? Some smart people once invented international phone lines and even the internet...

Because he doesnt care about it. I just want to stop it filling up my mailbox