Back On The Dole

After a run of five and a half years I sit here today out of work again :(

This wasn't unexpected (as explained in the previous post) but it still feels like a kick in the teeth.

The last three years have been back at the power station where I previously worked for twelve years during the Nineties and 2000's, this has been the most enjoyable period of my working career.

The main problem with this job was always the fact that despite being an important cog in the whole machine, the power station insisted in employing me through agencies and contract companies rather than employing me direct?

The reasons for this I've never really understood, why would you pay a fortune to an outsider "for supplying labour" when you already had the worker in place? Back in 1995 I got a call from a friend to apply for the job at the power station, I went for the interview and impressed them and they told me the job was mine, I asked the relevant questions about wages, holidays etc and was told I needed to discuss this with "my agency?", I told them that I didn't have an agency and they said I should sign up with a specific one they were using for other staff.

I was glad of the job so accepted the situation, the initial agency weren't too bad to work for and only took 10% of the money the power station were paying for me, the hourly rates and overtime rate was good and they paid premiums for night shifts and working 12 hour shifts.

During this period the same agency was responsible for about 60% of the workforce, with the rest (vital staff) employed direct through the power station. After a couple of  years a decision was made to start employing people direct through the power station (electricians, instrument techs, mechanics, engineers and secretaries?) but my department was left on the agency?

Then they decided to dump the agency and me and my department were told if we wanted to continue working there we would have to join a contract company they had chosen to run things.

I still cannot understand this choice as the contract company run by an "Arthur Daley" style character had no experience of the industry and were charging over 50% more for each of us than the previous agency, but we were told that our hourly rates would be dropping by a £1 an hour and night shift and 12 hour shift bonus would be dropped :(

This should have been the point I walked out, but with a young family and mortgage to support and high unemployment around I swallowed it and carried on.

The contract company had virtually no input in the daily running of the job, so were just sitting there getting paid the equivalent of my wages and the wages of my co-workers wages for spending a couple of hours doing the wages (with hand written pay slips).

The situation came to a head in 2006 when the power station finally decided to offer one of us a chance to become supervisor / team leader, a position that hadn't existed but which I had been doing for a number of years.

I was told to apply as the job was mine if I did, but obviously seeing an opportunity to grab another "nice little earner" the decision was made to appoint an outsider "specialist supervisor" and I was told that I didn't have the relevant supervisory experience despite doing the job well for several years?

So in came a guy who had no experience of the industry to supervise me and my co-workers, over the next couple of years he proved to be out of his depth and they sacked him. This made no difference to me as I had "thrown my toys out of the pram" and left the power station, which for a couple of years seemed to be a good choice until I ran out of money and options and had to take a lower paid job just to survive.

About 3 years ago “Arthur’s” contract company came calling asking if I would like to go back, their new supervisor was long gone and with others leaving they had ended up with a handful of employees who were just glad of a job but had little experience. I’m guessing the power station had been less than impressed with some of the staff he had been employing? The supervisor’s job had been given to one of the remaining workers (a guy I had trained up seven years earlier) so obviously the "supervisory experience" requirement had been dropped.

As I was in a good but lower paid job I bit the bullet and went back, as it turned out it was a good decision as despite the power station now struggling to survive due to government policies, there was a better atmosphere around the place.

There had been a large redundancy before I went back getting rid of a few good guys plus most of the "middle management types" who as in most companies are a problem, people who have no real work skills but can talk their way into senior positions by screwing over others, then feel the need to justify their positions by coming up with new ways of doing established jobs which never improve anything and by holding lots of pointless meetings?

So after a couple of years enjoyable employment getting my department running efficiently again after years of having the place staffed by guys who have just been dragged off the street to keep “Arthur’s” gravy train running it has finally come to an end.

So know it has been “kick in the teeth time”

As well as my contract being terminated before the power station actually closed (probably due to the power station paying Arthur double what I am actually paid), my contract company (Arthur’s) has now decided to close it’s business as it won’t be getting any more money from the Power station.

Meaning that he is claiming to be penniless and will not be able to pay me or my ex co-workers the redundancy pay and owed holiday pay he is liable for.

During the 18 year period he has been supplying the workers for the power station he would have earned between 2 and 3 million pounds after paying the wages, I know some of this would have gone on training, insurance and employers National insurance but still a very large chunk of that would have gone straight in Arthur’s pocket., which is not bad considering he must only spend about an hour a week doing anything related to our employment.

Now as well as having to go through the long winded process of signing on, I also face several months of form filling and phone calls trying to get at least some of the money that is owed to me from a government fund that is available for screwed workers like myself.

Happy new year