average wage of a sparks in the current climate

[ecclescake]

When brits went to germany it was for the same money as the germans not less. Plus we were there because they didn't have enough sparks for the work.

 

[johnboy6083]

i hate it when people say thatpoles ect are better workers than us brits. In my opinion and experience that just isnt true. Dont get me wrong ive worked along side some brilliant polish sparks, and fantastic polish scaffolders. Put it this way, if you are motivated enough to leave your own country and work away for months at a time, then you are going top work hard, because you are likely to be a motivaed and determined person. Polabnd have their own fair share of people who dont want to workl ect, but the majority of them are sat in poland, not over here. im sure the foreigners like our tradesmen for the same reason as above.

Times are hard at the mo for everybody with rising fuel, food ect, and wages not rising to keep up. Wages lowering all the time, and not enough jobs to go round. all we can keep doing, is working hard, not living outside our means, and keeping our chins up. It aint gona get any easier any time soon.

John

 

[flyingsausage]

The French farmers know how to look after themselves.They block the ports and the motorways and get workers from other sectors to come out and support them.
You look at the mass portests when they were putting the pension age over there to 62.They must have been laughing at us when Blair and Co put the plans in place for us to go up to 68

 

[bugsy]

The cream has (sob sob ) gone there were times when you could earn 600 a day

 

[flyingsausage]

most sparks don,t even make £600 a week

 

[LukeD]

so... what is the answer, do we all complain on forums and nothing happens ? or do people in this country stand up and say "enough" like we did "poll tax" style.

Unless those in the Industrial business stand up for themselves etc then this time next year you can be sure it will be 30% worse.

 

[flyingsausage]

Nothing will ever happen because if anyone stands up and says I am not working for that there is now a hundred at least happy to take the job

 

[rmc86uk]

how can you say that it is ok for poles to work here when a bloke can employ 3 poles for the price of a british bloke which I think is horrific. The four week wonders are worse cos they work for peanuts and it puts the rate down for everyone else.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

 

[flyingsausage]

That last post is what I call spam

 

[LukeD]

Despite these debates going on here and many other parts of the media etc, i see very little in the way of solving the problem?
Those that employ Poles etc might only be doing it so they themselves can survive etc ? Contracts are worth less so the costs must be lowered etc . Its messy and will get worse.

But again.... its never going to change until the trades people in this country put their tools down and block access to the suppliers etc .

I for one have noticed that far more suppliers are been paid in cash, this means not only are people working cheaper they are not paying tax etc . In my book people working with lots of cash tend to be "iffy"
something has to be done . what is worse,,, a poles working cheaper or a Brit working cheaper and not paying tax etc ? same thing, both ruining this country , Yet "one" only gets the criticism !

 

[ian.settle1]

That last post is what I call spam

You mean
http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php

 

[keith915]

To say the poles work harder than brits is just plain silly. Yes the majority of poles we see in the UK are hard working, but what we don't see are the lazy ones back in Poland...

At the moment the biggest leech on our trade are agencies and sites like My Hammer. Thats where we need to start. Cut out these slimy middle men.

 

[grantr37]

theres a lot more agencies now than there ever was springing up to take advantage of the short-termism and desperate work seeking people...

 

[nuelec]

I run my own small business, i currently have 1 spark, 1 trainee & 1 subby working for me. I pay my spark £140pd & the trainee £60pd & the subby does price work but not full time
I do mainly domestic refurbs. I charge my clients £65 per point. I generally get my guys to do the projects whilst i run about organising materials meeting customers & liasing with other trades etc, in between that i do several call outs a week & small maintenance jobs charged out at £70 per hour. & then there's all the admin, pricing invoices etc. We are based in West London, work at the moment is plentiful. All in all at the end of the year i make about £50k (although 08/09 was considerably less due to the financial collapse). May seem like a lot but its not great for all the responsibility & stress of running your own business. Despite the dramatic rise in copper I have not been able to put my prices up for several years due to the fragile economy, so despite having a higher turnover than a couple of years ago my profit is pretty much the same. So the purpose of this entry is to show you both sides of the coin. & i am also interested to know if my figures campare to anyone out there in similar circumstances.

 

[LukeD]

Nielec

Not a bad rate per hour for Small Maintenance job !!!