they're 'avin a laugh...
- Thread starter ColJack
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P
PrinceofDarkness
It is indeed a very funny video, but it's also a very sad and poignant (if exaggerated) statement of how things were in the North country in the 1980's.........
Just a little word about the so-called 'minimum wage': an employee has the option to work for less than the NMW - even though he's entitled to it as a basic right, in Law, if he chooses to do so. He can choose to work for nothing, come to that. But an employer can't offer to pay less than the minimum wage without the consent of his employee.
I hope that Coljack will find suitable employment very soon.
Lucia.
Just a little word about the so-called 'minimum wage': an employee has the option to work for less than the NMW - even though he's entitled to it as a basic right, in Law, if he chooses to do so. He can choose to work for nothing, come to that. But an employer can't offer to pay less than the minimum wage without the consent of his employee.
I hope that Coljack will find suitable employment very soon.
Lucia.
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I had one job where I would spend most the day drinking tea. OK money was not good but neither was the work we did. Maintenance jobs can be that way, boss is glad to see you drinking tea as that means everything is running and really you are just on standby in case something goes wrong.
However at interview stage you have no way of knowing what is expected and you can't really ask.
But these jobs tend to end up with no pay rises and although to start with would have been OK 5 or 10 years down the line they are rubbish.
Mine was on the Falklands and 1984 when I started with 25% bonus and loads of un-worked overtime it was great but by 1989 with 10% bonus and no overtime it was rotten.
By this time leave reduced to 3 weeks every 6 months and if you have ever tried to find a job in three weeks well not easy. So what does one do? Return for another trip or say at home and hope something turns up! Remember no unemployment benefit as working abroad.
In the end I had lucky break and went to work in Sizewell B and I still glow in dark!
But 5 years latter the job is still being offered at very little more than I was on and sneaky tricks like quoting 14 months salary as if it's for 12 and including bonus then saying plus bonus.
But 48 hour week is still legal and I gained as when off sick still paid for 48 hours. It's the 16 hour contracts you have to watch for where you work overtime on regular basis until work dries up and then you have to live on 16 hours.
Back in 1970's we had this with inflation but low pay raises after Labour government had bled the coffers dry. Paid taxes into system with earning related dole and just when I came to draw on it. It went as country had no money.
Limited to £25 to take out of country. Didn't matter if you did have money holidays abroad were out of question.
Seems all about to repeat itself.
However at interview stage you have no way of knowing what is expected and you can't really ask.
But these jobs tend to end up with no pay rises and although to start with would have been OK 5 or 10 years down the line they are rubbish.
Mine was on the Falklands and 1984 when I started with 25% bonus and loads of un-worked overtime it was great but by 1989 with 10% bonus and no overtime it was rotten.
By this time leave reduced to 3 weeks every 6 months and if you have ever tried to find a job in three weeks well not easy. So what does one do? Return for another trip or say at home and hope something turns up! Remember no unemployment benefit as working abroad.
In the end I had lucky break and went to work in Sizewell B and I still glow in dark!
But 5 years latter the job is still being offered at very little more than I was on and sneaky tricks like quoting 14 months salary as if it's for 12 and including bonus then saying plus bonus.
But 48 hour week is still legal and I gained as when off sick still paid for 48 hours. It's the 16 hour contracts you have to watch for where you work overtime on regular basis until work dries up and then you have to live on 16 hours.
Back in 1970's we had this with inflation but low pay raises after Labour government had bled the coffers dry. Paid taxes into system with earning related dole and just when I came to draw on it. It went as country had no money.
Limited to £25 to take out of country. Didn't matter if you did have money holidays abroad were out of question.
Seems all about to repeat itself.
For those who have done the maintenance job I'd like to ask, is it a job worth having for a spark starting out who ai
s eventually to become a self employed domestic electrician?
Just want to know from the horses mouth
s eventually to become a self employed domestic electrician?
Just want to know from the horses mouth
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if you're doing industrial / commercial maintainence then that's what you learn..
I've been IND / COM for 13 years and only ever rewired one house ( pre-part P )
half of the stuff that apply to houses don't apply the same for ind/commercial..
if you're doing industrial / commercial maintainence then that's what you learn..
I've been IND / COM for 13 years and only ever rewired one house ( pre-part P )
half of the stuff that apply to houses don't apply the same for ind/commercial..
I've been ind for 16 years, I agree with coljack in the respect that a lot of the domestic stuff doesn't apply as with industrial we don't have part p, the industrial sector has been regulated a lot longer by the HSE (EAWR etc) and where I am is a lot more tightly regulated.
This is possibly what caused the tightening up of the strings by the government by introducing part p as where I work we would never allow work on electrical systems by someone who isn't competent to do it, even to the extent of not allowing a non-electrically qualified and appointed person to even replace a plugtop fuse.
At work we don't use T&E at all, it is all SWA, pyro, steel conduits, YY, metvin etc.
It still complies with BS7671 but is quite good in the way that it still complies with the current version of the regs even though a lot of it was installed early 1980s, a lot of thought must have gone into it by the designers at the time.
This is possibly what caused the tightening up of the strings by the government by introducing part p as where I work we would never allow work on electrical systems by someone who isn't competent to do it, even to the extent of not allowing a non-electrically qualified and appointed person to even replace a plugtop fuse.
At work we don't use T&E at all, it is all SWA, pyro, steel conduits, YY, metvin etc.
It still complies with BS7671 but is quite good in the way that it still complies with the current version of the regs even though a lot of it was installed early 1980s, a lot of thought must have gone into it by the designers at the time.
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