hows the construction industry doing

Jimmy_31

bo_drinker wrote: »

Jimmy31.. what I should have said is I am not subbying I am doing private work. On the books is okay but not for me.
Some firms will buy work to get through a slow patch and hope for extras, if all they are doing is buying all the work then time will tell??
Prudent.. Plumbers seem to be a different breed plumbers vans everywhere until you need one, a lot pick and chose, some go it alone and struggle ... Many will put the rendering off with Winter round the corner..

Thats what all these directors dont seem to understand, through not speaking to their site agents they have gone out and bought more work thinking they can pull it back with extras.

Im seeing plenty of extras being done but nobody is paying for them, the HAs wised up to that one a while ago.

Cant see it being very long before anybody will set foot on site in my area due to the rates of pay and middle men who think they are untouchable taking a cut of a mans wages for doing absolutely nothing.

SteveV2

Jimmy_31 wrote: »

Thats what all these directors dont seem to understand, through not speaking to their site agents they have gone out and bought more work thinking they can pull it back with extras.

Im seeing plenty of extras being done but nobody is paying for them, the HAs wised up to that one a while ago.

Cant see it being very long before anybody will set foot on site in my area due to the rates of pay and middle men who think they are untouchable taking a cut of a mans wages for doing absolutely nothing.

What he said. Rates are pretty bad atm. It's the middle mans fault. These big companies don't want the hassle of trade direct so i guess we're stuck like this for now.

Said it before. The last 2 years, 90% of what I have done has been HA. I do however have plenty to get on with. Well, 3 options which i'm more than happy with. Will go for the closest to home of course

thriftybabe

Im seeing plenty of extras being done but nobody is paying for them, the HAs wised up to that one a while ago.

Cant see it being very long before anybody will set foot on site in my area due to the rates of pay and middle men who think they are untouchable taking a cut of a mans wages for doing absolutely nothing.[/QUOTE]


Our company is the middle man and we take a cut of the men's wages. We have to do risk assessments, method statements, tool Box talks, all Healthy and Safety. We have insurance for subcontractors.

Can I just ask do you get paid every week/fortnight? Do you risk your own money when a Company goes out of the game?

As for the extras that you get asked to do? Does your subby not pay you? Funny we pay our Subbies and wait, hopefully to see if we will get paid the extras. In addition we have to wait for our money! We sometimes dont get paid for 12 weeks and sometimes not at all!

In addition we have to wait 2 years for retention payments. I would say that we "the middle men" do quite a lot for our money.

Until you know what you are talking about please do not talk down the men who are paying your wages!!!

thriftybabe

thriftybabe wrote: »

Im seeing plenty of extras being done but nobody is paying for them, the HAs wised up to that one a while ago.

Cant see it being very long before anybody will set foot on site in my area due to the rates of pay and middle men who think they are untouchable taking a cut of a mans wages for doing absolutely nothing.

Our company is the middle man and we take a cut of the men's wages. We have to do risk assessments, method statements, tool Box talks, all Healthy and Safety. We have insurance for subcontractors.

Can I just ask do you get paid every week/fortnight? Do you risk your own money when a Company goes out of the game?

As for the extras that you get asked to do? Does your subby not pay you? Funny we pay our Subbies and wait, hopefully to see if we will get paid the extras. In addition we have to wait for our money! We sometimes dont get paid for 12 weeks and sometimes not at all!

In addition we have to wait 2 years for retention payments. I would say that we "the middle men" do quite a lot for our money.

Until you know what you are talking about please do not talk down the men who are paying your wages!!!

vivatifosi

bo_drinker wrote: »

Plumbers seem to be a different breed plumbers vans everywhere until you need one

I wonder with plumbers and CORGI engineers whether they benefit both ways. They can do new installs when the economy is good, then when there's a downturn and people don't service their boilers or replace pipework they get called in on emergencies. A lot of other tradies as you know aren't that lucky.

My brother and dad are both in the trade. Dad still works because he wants to and always has plenty of work but he has a reputation going back so many years that he has a loyal client base who are about the same age as he is and his competitors have long since retired! My brother finds it tough too, but is lucky as he does mostly refurb work in wealthy areas and that's not dropped back as much. Its harder for people whose segment has been slammed and are having to try to move into market segments where there are already established players I think, even if the established player is a one man band. Big fish in little pools and all that.

bo_drinker

http://www.getbritainbuilding.org/video.asp

Jimmy_31

thriftybabe wrote: »

Our company is the middle man and we take a cut of the men's wages. We have to do risk assessments, method statements, tool Box talks, all Healthy and Safety. We have insurance for subcontractors.

Can I just ask do you get paid every week/fortnight? Do you risk your own money when a Company goes out of the game?

As for the extras that you get asked to do? Does your subby not pay you? Funny we pay our Subbies and wait, hopefully to see if we will get paid the extras. In addition we have to wait for our money! We sometimes dont get paid for 12 weeks and sometimes not at all!

In addition we have to wait 2 years for retention payments. I would say that we "the middle men" do quite a lot for our money.

Until you know what you are talking about please do not talk down the men who are paying your wages!!!

I get my wages paid to me either weekly, fortnightly, monthly or with one paticular main sub contractor you have to work a month in hand.

My money is at risk with every main sub contractor or main contractor i work for, 2 months wages, retentions, holiday pay which i do not want them to take from my wages because i have to kick off to get it back etc etc.

I have waited months for wages from the middle men and have had to resort to going straight to the directors office to make him write me a cheque on more than one occasion. The look of amazement that a lad on the tools who is covered in 5hite has had the cheek to come into their office is quite amusing to say the least.

The middle men are not needed in most cases, why do i need a middle man to tell me to sign the latest toolbox talk sheet that never ever gets read out to the lads on site when there is already a foreman on site from the main contractors who i can deal with.

I do plenty of extras and book them in, when i get paid i often come to the conclusion that whoever processed my wages cannot add up simple sums like X metres of fascia and soffit at x amount of pounds = x amount of wages.

Then we have the really bent middle men, citb levy deducted from our wages week in week out and seeing as you know a lot about the building game you will know that this is illegal and i cannot believe that main contracting firms or main subby firms give me a wage slip with this information printed on it, its like they are saving up for me because when ive got time (or think fcuk it somebodys getting some 5hit) i will be informing ucatt of every single contractor who does this and i will recieve every single penny back.

All subbys want is to work for the main contractor who has won the work, this still isnt ideal because the main contractors are just as bent as the main sub contractors, its just easier to work for the main contractor because they cant blame anybody else for not paying you what you are owed.

I provide my own insurances as do all the other subbys i work with, even though it is very rarely asked to be shown.

With regards to the amount of sterling work you put into these toolbox talks that you photocopy to be sent to site, they never get read out to the lads as they already know how to pick up a box and then put down a box, we just sign them............or do we:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:figure that one out because we can be crafty 8astards as well.

Men dont pay my wages, parasites do, usually the ones who couldnt make a penny on the tools so had to set up as a main sub contractor and start taking other hard working mens wages.

You better check all your toolbox talks are up to date seeing as the industry is not doing so well hadnt you:)

thriftybabe

Oh dear these parasites that are paying your wages,why oh why, do you work for them? I am sorry to hear that you are having problems with being paid. Maybe you should come and work for a decent Sub-Contractor who looks after his men! It is a shame what is happened to you. However, it sounds a bit like sour grapes to me. If you were to work for a Sub-contractor who does things right then you would not have all these problems. Best you get off site work by the looks of things. You sound really bitter to me. A wee job elsewhere will do you the world of good and help you release all your bitterness. Us parasites will keep the Construction Industry going whether you are there or not and will live in our huge houses and 4 x 4 cars and cream everything from the workers.

I have to say so sad that you think this way. You are just a small minded, bitter person.

Anyway I am away to get my tool box register sorted for tomorrow morning!
.

Jimmy_31

thriftybabe wrote: »

Oh dear these parasites that are paying your wages,why oh why, do you work for them? I am sorry to hear that you are having problems with being paid. Maybe you should come and work for a decent Sub-Contractor who looks after his men! It is a shame what is happened to you. However, it sounds a bit like sour grapes to me. If you were to work for a Sub-contractor who does things right then you would not have all these problems. Best you get off site work by the looks of things. You sound really bitter to me. A wee job elsewhere will do you the world of good and help you release all your bitterness. Us parasites will keep the Construction Industry going whether you are there or not and will live in our huge houses and 4 x 4 cars and cream everything from the workers.

I have to say so sad that you think this way. You are just a small minded, bitter person.

Anyway I am away to get my tool box register sorted for tomorrow morning!
.

Why oh why do i work for them ?

Its quite simple really, i cant afford the type of backhanders it takes to be a labour supplier.

I cant work directly for any main contractors as they do not take on cards in anymore (most are giving subbys moody contracts so the cards in lads can be binned)

There are no decent main sub contractors in my area who i can work for.

The good news is that everything that is going on is being reported back to the union by various lads who work for various firms, nothings happened yet so i presume they are getting as much info as they can before it all comes out, such as wage slips with citb levy deducted, moody contracts, names of those giving and recieving backhanders, poor health and safety implementation, toolbox talks not being read out, people working on site when they havent been given a site induction etc etc etc:)

You might want to check those names on your toolbox talk register, terry wrist the plasterer doesnt exist but john smith does, shame he never had a toolbox isnt it:rotfl:

EY you lot sign this..........what is it..............just sign it i aint got time to read it out to you.....no worries boss:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:


Regards........... Jack Hammer:)

thriftybabe

We don't need to worry about anyone not signing tool box talks etc. We have our own health and safety advisor who deals with it. We do not take curb levy off our divvies and have never done. Sorry for your experiences. We have heard that there are a lot of bad subbies out there but we r not one of them. Our guys always get paid on the dot. When we don't get paid, we do without wages not our men. Do not tar us all with the same brush when u don't know us.

The construction industry is hellish for all who work in it. It is not easy for anyone. On another note my OH is a well respected subbie and in addition is the hardest working person I know. He still works on the sites when he can and is certainly very good at what he does.

With regards to backhanders I am sure that goes on at higher levels between planning and contractors but not at our level!