Jimzk5 Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 A bit late with this as it happened 2 weeks ago but I've been busy on Saturday I dropped my mom off at work, drove away and 200 yards later my van cuts out, phone the AA who quickly diagnosed the fuel pump had gone, a new fuel pump would probably cost £600 plus fitting i get towed home, so I phoned the wife who had gone out for the day, she answers "I was just phoning you, the cars broke down" so both van and car broke down the same day, the car was beyond repair (cost of fixing was more than the value) and my mechanic did me a favour fitting a second hand pump for £300, but..... on the same day after I'd been towed home I set about replacing my wooden back door with a new upvc one, ripped the old one out, get the new one in place........ drill wont work, now I have no door, no drill and no transport to fetch one, phone around and my mate brings one round, so I start fixing the door, my phone rings it was the bloke who is been working for for 5 weeks telling me he couldn't afford to pay me and I should find something else. so in 1day I lost my van and car, my drill and my job, and to finish the day off I went out on a pre-arranged night out whe my missus phoned to tell me our freezer wasn't working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) On 30/08/2016 at 17:56, Rugeley Villa said: Caught the top of my head on a scaffold bolt today and can honestly say it was pissing of blood to the point where it was just streaming down my face. Anyway went to the site office and the site manager said it needed a couple of stitches but in the end decided not to send me hospital to save on the paper work and to stop an enquiry from health & safety he asked if I was ok, I was although it bloody hurt and was in a bit of pain and said if I really need to go hospital to go but like he said he rather I never. I wasn't wearing my hard hat so it's my own fault but I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was ok in the end and would probably still be waiting at the hospital if I had gone. What sort of cowboys do you bloody work for? I think I've seen them advertised on Casualty. Edit: Seriously, why do you go along with that kind of crap? Edited August 31, 2016 by snowychap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post snowychap Posted August 31, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted August 31, 2016 15 minutes ago, Jimzk5 said: A bit late with this as it happened 2 weeks ago but I've been busy on Saturday I dropped my mom off at work, drove away and 200 yards later my van cuts out, phone the AA who quickly diagnosed the fuel pump had gone, a new fuel pump would probably cost £600 plus fitting i get towed home, so I phoned the wife who had gone out for the day, she answers "I was just phoning you, the cars broke down" so both van and car broke down the same day, the car was beyond repair (cost of fixing was more than the value) and my mechanic did me a favour fitting a second hand pump for £300, but..... on the same day after I'd been towed home I set about replacing my wooden back door with a new upvc one, ripped the old one out, get the new one in place........ drill wont work, now I have no door, no drill and no transport to fetch one, phone around and my mate brings one round, so I start fixing the door, my phone rings it was the bloke who is been working for for 5 weeks telling me he couldn't afford to pay me and I should find something else. so in 1day I lost my van and car, my drill and my job, and to finish the day off I went out on a pre-arranged night out whe my missus phoned to tell me our freezer wasn't working. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 34 minutes ago, snowychap said: What sort of cowboys do you bloody work for? I think I've seen them advertised on Casualty. Bovis and Seddon homes are normally the worst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 47 minutes ago, Jimzk5 said: A bit late with this as it happened 2 weeks ago but I've been busy on Saturday I dropped my mom off at work, drove away and 200 yards later my van cuts out, phone the AA who quickly diagnosed the fuel pump had gone, a new fuel pump would probably cost £600 plus fitting i get towed home, so I phoned the wife who had gone out for the day, she answers "I was just phoning you, the cars broke down" so both van and car broke down the same day, the car was beyond repair (cost of fixing was more than the value) and my mechanic did me a favour fitting a second hand pump for £300, but..... on the same day after I'd been towed home I set about replacing my wooden back door with a new upvc one, ripped the old one out, get the new one in place........ drill wont work, now I have no door, no drill and no transport to fetch one, phone around and my mate brings one round, so I start fixing the door, my phone rings it was the bloke who is been working for for 5 weeks telling me he couldn't afford to pay me and I should find something else. so in 1day I lost my van and car, my drill and my job, and to finish the day off I went out on a pre-arranged night out whe my missus phoned to tell me our freezer wasn't working. Just look at it like this, tomorrow will probably be worse . 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) 21 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said: Bovis and Seddon homes are normally the worst. So they're not fly-by-nighters? That's (even more of) a disgrace. Just think on what they'd be like if you succumbed to some sort of haemorrhage a couple of days later. No doubt they'd claim that nothing happened on site as you hadn't reported it and your family would be left out in the cold. They're not saving on the paperwork to save your arse, mate. Edited August 31, 2016 by snowychap Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) 19 minutes ago, snowychap said: So they're not fly-by-nighters? That's [(even more of) a disgrace. Just think on what they'd be like if you succumbed to some sort of haemorrhage a couple of days later. No doubt they'd claim that nothing happened on site as you hadn't reported it and your family would be left out in the cold. They're not saving on the paperwork to save your arse, mate. I could post all night on this but I'll tell you what happened the other month to one of our lads on a Seddon site in Stafford. He fell between a gap in the scaffold where scaffold boards should of been and cut his balls on a jagged scaffold pole that should of had a cap on it. Two weeks off work and a very sore dick for a few weeks plus he had stitches. Scaffolders were straight up there sortingscaffold out and replacing the bloody boards with new ones to hide evidence. There was an enquiry by Seddons own independent health & safety and the stupid bitch covered everything up along with the site manager. The carpenter lost his job because when interviewed he told the truth so they laid him off. Massive massive cover up but none of the other workers would say nothing because they would be sacked. When we done our cscs cards we actually got told that it's pointless putting any claim in against Seddon homes because they are notorious for hiring a top solicitor and getting out of it. I've had a run in before with the health & safety woman and she's a right one. Our gaffer even went along with Seddon homes because he didn't want to rock the boat as we do a lot of work for them. Health & safety on most sites is shite considering on how hard they come down on you these days with all this cscs card shite. No one gives a flying shit about the workers, well most of them don't. Edited August 31, 2016 by Rugeley Villa 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 1 minute ago, Rugeley Villa said: No one gives a flying shit about the workers, well most of them don't. Twas ever thus, I guess. I repeat that it's a disgrace. You have my sympathy. You need to band together somehow - some sort of union, perhaps? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Just now, snowychap said: Twas ever thus, I guess. I repeat that it's a disgrace. You have my sympathy. You need to band together somehow - some sort of union, perhaps? I'm a Tory I don't do unions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Just now, Rugeley Villa said: I'm a Tory I don't do unions. Talk about shooting yourself in your feet/kneecaps/goolies. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said: Our gaffer even went along with Seddon homes because he didn't want to rock the boat as we do a lot of work for them. That's the reality, financially with the construction act you can't really take the piss anymore so you'll never work for us again is one of the few tricks main contractors still have got a bloke on one of my sites at the moment who stepped on a scaffold pole lying at the bottom of a ladder and did his ankle, he's waiting till March and then plans on using it as the last thing he does before retiring its a huge industry but in reality in terms of people amazingly small, when we sign subbies up you'll have 4 to sometimes even around 10 people chipping their opinions in, if you've pissed one off or someone thinks you're shit then it doesn't take long for everyone to think it the site I'm on at the moment probably as many as 10 out of the 25 subbies we've got will never work on my site again, worst project I've ever done, got some absolute idiots on site Edited August 31, 2016 by villa4europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 8 minutes ago, snowychap said: Twas ever thus, I guess. I repeat that it's a disgrace. You have my sympathy. You need to band together somehow - some sort of union, perhaps? Unions would cripple building sites, the main problem is everyone's eagerness just to do stuff, if you're on a measure and see some scaffolding that needs adapting do you tell the site manager and stop working for an hour while its being done or do you crack on and get paid? You crack on, that's because people in suits on the big building sites will tell you 101 ways to **** off when you put the day work sheet in for standing time there are still some really big bully boys out there who will clean subbies out if they're difficult, try and claim a couple of hundred quid and end up being taken for a few thousand, it's not worth the hassle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 3 minutes ago, villa4europe said: That's the reality, financially with the construction act you can't really take the piss anymore so you'll never work for us again is one of the few tricks main contractors still have got a bloke on one of my sites at the moment who stepped on a scaffold pole lying at the bottom of a ladder and did his ankle, he's waiting till March and then plans on using it as the last thing he does before retiring its a huge industry but in reality in terms of people amazingly small, when we sign subbies up you'll have 4 to sometimes even around 10 people chipping their opinions in, if you've pissed one off or someone thinks you're shit then it doesn't take long for everyone to think it the site I'm on at the moment probably as many as 10 out of the 25 subbies we've got will never work on my site again, worst project I've ever done, got some absolute idiots on site I find the biggest idiots to be the site managers(not aimed at you) I've been on some terrible sites myself and as you know even the best sites it only takes one innocent mistake for someone to get killed or seriously injured. A lot of the younger kids coming through just don't seem interested and it does not surprise me that there's a lack of tradesmen. The quality of work is shabby on a lot of sites too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 8 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said: I'm a Tory I don't do unions. Btw, Tories absolutely do do unions. They just don't do unions for the likes of you. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 I'm not a site manager, I'm worse...I'm a QS... one of the project managers I'm working with at the moment is completely out of his depth, he's about 55 too, he's a glorified site manager been promoted somehow, the drawings on site are 3 months out of date, we've internally stopped it twice for h&s, he thinks the answer is spend money on labourers, it's not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowychap Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 1 minute ago, villa4europe said: Unions would cripple building sites, the main problem is everyone's eagerness just to do stuff, if you're on a measure and see some scaffolding that needs adapting do you tell the site manager and stop working for an hour while its being done or do you crack on and get paid? You crack on, that's because people in suits on the big building sites will tell you 101 ways to **** off when you put the day work sheet in for standing time there are still some really big bully boys out there who will clean subbies out if they're difficult, try and claim a couple of hundred quid and end up being taken for a few thousand, it's not worth the hassle Who is 'crippling' building sites? Rugeley has just described a situation (that you have confirmed) where individuals are at risk simply because the firm they work for or subcontract underneath has all the power and can bin them if they complain or, worse, just ask for simple H&S things to be followed (like actual injuries and risks being dealt with). In order to address that power imblance, there are two options: increased legislation (which would have to be administered by an already overloaded and impotent HSE) or more power to the workforce (most likely to be achieved by some form of unionisation). Perhaps an increase in union representation and power might redress the imbalance rather than necessarily kibosh the working mentality on the site. Perhaps it's the thinking that it will immediately lead to a stand around and stop working mentality that leads to the situation where workers are taken advantage of by employers and just have to shut up because they'll otherwise be blacklisted (I though there were court cases trying to address that crap going through currently?). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 11 minutes ago, snowychap said: Btw, Tories absolutely do do unions. They just don't do unions for the likes of you. That's how much I know about politics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Staying with the outlaws in France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 10 minutes ago, villa4europe said: I'm not a site manager, I'm worse...I'm a QS... one of the project managers I'm working with at the moment is completely out of his depth, he's about 55 too, he's a glorified site manager been promoted somehow, the drawings on site are 3 months out of date, we've internally stopped it twice for h&s, he thinks the answer is spend money on labourers, it's not Haha tell me about it. I've known some site managers that truly have not got a clue to the point where you feel sorry for them. Never a dull moment eh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) 23 minutes ago, villa4europe said: Unions would cripple building sites, the main problem is everyone's eagerness just to do stuff, if you're on a measure and see some scaffolding that needs adapting do you tell the site manager and stop working for an hour while its being done or do you crack on and get paid? You crack on, that's because people in suits on the big building sites will tell you 101 ways to **** off when you put the day work sheet in for standing time there are still some really big bully boys out there who will clean subbies out if they're difficult, try and claim a couple of hundred quid and end up being taken for a few thousand, it's not worth the hassle This 100%. our firm have stopped paying day work out to subbys because they don't receive it off the builder. The one job we did we waved goodbye to 4K in extras just so they would pay up for the job, it was either write it off or you wait another 3 months to get your money and we don't use you again. And yeah if something ain't right you just crack on with it mostly. Edited August 31, 2016 by Rugeley Villa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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