Back in 1997 a company called Orr**ge took over my contract at the power station and cut my hourly rate from £8.50 to £7.50 with the message of "if you don't like it, there are others who will take your place", I swallowed it as jobs were hard to come by and I had a family to support.
Luckily they were replaced a couple of years later and things got a little better although it took another couple of years to get back to wages I had been on in 97.
While still waiting to hear from the job I want, I have been trawling around the job sites for something else and I came across the same company requiring workers.
Now 18 years later they are offering £6.50 per hour on a zero hours contract.
I struggled back then now it's 18 years of inflation rises later.
The job itself is not at a fixed address so you have to travel around the country.
You get paid a petrol allowance and lodging only if it can't be done in a day, but that's it.
So you could be working in the Midlands and be expected to leave in the early hours and not get home till very late, and you only get paid for the hours spent on the actual job.
So an 8 hour shift might take 16 hours all for £52 less tax and NI, the petrol allowance does not cover the full cost and nothing extra is given for wear and tear on your vehicle or parking charges.
Thursday 30 April 2015
Friday 24 April 2015
Election 2015
Here we are again, less than 2 weeks till the country decides which bunch of crooks it wants to put up with for the next 5 years :(
Although I have a lot of opinions on politics, this time I really have lost interest.
Same old crap trotted out by all the major parties, all saying pretty much the same thing to win over voters when you know if any of them get in they will forget most of it.
One thing seems different this time is that there seems to be an increasing number of people like myself who aren't falling for any of it.
In previous elections you always have to put up with many people that you know, just repeating whatever the Tory press have been saying and repeating all the lies, but it seems that more and more people are actually questioning what they are telling us.
That being said I still mix with a lot of people (family and friends) who have jumped on the UKIP bandwagon? which at least gives me an opportunity to discuss politics with them and put them right on some of the bullshit :)
I don't get the chance at home because the wife can't stand anything to do with politics or any of the leaders, which might be a good thing? as I'm sure my ranting would end up with me sleeping on the settee :)
Her view of political leaders - Cameron "snob", Milliband "more cheese grommit", Farage "looks like a frog", Clegg "looks lost", Sturgeon "didn't she used to be in Rab C Nesbitt?", Wood "who?", Bennett "her voice is annoying".
Who will I vote for? probably end up with Labour as I always vote Labour because it's who I've supported throughout my life even though they are just watered down Tories nowadays :(
I would probably vote for TUSC if they had a candidate in my area but they don't, and at the end of the day my vote will be wasted as I will end up with Roy Cropper lookalike David Amess.
The tragedy of living in the South East is that even though you never meet anyone who admits to voting Tory they always get in with a healthy majority :(
Although I have a lot of opinions on politics, this time I really have lost interest.
Same old crap trotted out by all the major parties, all saying pretty much the same thing to win over voters when you know if any of them get in they will forget most of it.
One thing seems different this time is that there seems to be an increasing number of people like myself who aren't falling for any of it.
In previous elections you always have to put up with many people that you know, just repeating whatever the Tory press have been saying and repeating all the lies, but it seems that more and more people are actually questioning what they are telling us.
That being said I still mix with a lot of people (family and friends) who have jumped on the UKIP bandwagon? which at least gives me an opportunity to discuss politics with them and put them right on some of the bullshit :)
I don't get the chance at home because the wife can't stand anything to do with politics or any of the leaders, which might be a good thing? as I'm sure my ranting would end up with me sleeping on the settee :)
Her view of political leaders - Cameron "snob", Milliband "more cheese grommit", Farage "looks like a frog", Clegg "looks lost", Sturgeon "didn't she used to be in Rab C Nesbitt?", Wood "who?", Bennett "her voice is annoying".
Who will I vote for? probably end up with Labour as I always vote Labour because it's who I've supported throughout my life even though they are just watered down Tories nowadays :(
I would probably vote for TUSC if they had a candidate in my area but they don't, and at the end of the day my vote will be wasted as I will end up with Roy Cropper lookalike David Amess.
The tragedy of living in the South East is that even though you never meet anyone who admits to voting Tory they always get in with a healthy majority :(
Saturday 18 April 2015
Removed
That was annoying.
A "friend" posted that old picture on Facebook of the Daily Mail headline about Pensioners only getting £6.000 a year while illegal immigrants get £29.000 a year plus a £2 million pound house.
Several replies of the usual type "kick them out" being a milder one, so I pointed out it was a hoax that I had seen here about 5 years ago and it had been adapted from one that has been around in America for over 10 years.
Got a couple of replies back along the lines of "it might be a hoax but it was pretty close to the truth" and the usual "so you'll only be happy when we're all speaking Muslim"? :)
OK I like to wind people up, and can't be bothered going with the flow if I don't agree.
So I composed this little rant ...
"The pension part is almost correct and that is a disgrace, especially as our wonderful Tory government tax them on it :( and I've no doubt there are thousands of immigrants and illegals screwing the system, helped by our government cutting the numbers in our police and fraud departments to unmanageable levels.
But it sticks in the throat when the Tory newspapers print stuff like this as a smokescreen while the owners are a bunch of tax dodging shysters who couldn't give a f*** about Britain, just about how much money they can screw out of each and every one of us.
Just check out Rothermere, the Barclay bros, Murdoch and all the other "businessman" crooks who just because they are Tory party donors avoid criticism, but drain this country a thousand times more than all the scapegoats they use to deflect attention."
Oddly within seconds of posting this the main post was removed?
Guess I've lost another friend :)
A "friend" posted that old picture on Facebook of the Daily Mail headline about Pensioners only getting £6.000 a year while illegal immigrants get £29.000 a year plus a £2 million pound house.
Several replies of the usual type "kick them out" being a milder one, so I pointed out it was a hoax that I had seen here about 5 years ago and it had been adapted from one that has been around in America for over 10 years.
Got a couple of replies back along the lines of "it might be a hoax but it was pretty close to the truth" and the usual "so you'll only be happy when we're all speaking Muslim"? :)
OK I like to wind people up, and can't be bothered going with the flow if I don't agree.
So I composed this little rant ...
"The pension part is almost correct and that is a disgrace, especially as our wonderful Tory government tax them on it :( and I've no doubt there are thousands of immigrants and illegals screwing the system, helped by our government cutting the numbers in our police and fraud departments to unmanageable levels.
But it sticks in the throat when the Tory newspapers print stuff like this as a smokescreen while the owners are a bunch of tax dodging shysters who couldn't give a f*** about Britain, just about how much money they can screw out of each and every one of us.
Just check out Rothermere, the Barclay bros, Murdoch and all the other "businessman" crooks who just because they are Tory party donors avoid criticism, but drain this country a thousand times more than all the scapegoats they use to deflect attention."
Oddly within seconds of posting this the main post was removed?
Guess I've lost another friend :)
Friday 17 April 2015
What A Year
So I was made redundant on the 31st December, so technically unemployed from the 1st January.
No redundancy pay forthcoming.
After a lot of promises about jobs being available back at the Power station as soon as my contract company were out of the picture, nothing actually happened.
Finally applied for Jobseekers near the end of January, then attended an interview with a suitable employer down in Kent which went well.
Went through the demeaning process of signing on with the usual "look down your nose" JSA person, who gives you rubbish information while following whatever the new government guidelines are.
Had a second interview at the Kent job which again went well, they promised a decision within a week (mid February), waited and waited while nothing came through.
Spent a day going through all the jobs available on a multitude of jobs agencies then made a couple of calls to people I have worked with.
Months later I'm still waiting for any replies from any of the jobs advertised on job sites, but did get a couple of interviews through the leads offered by friends.
By the 18th February I had been offered 2 jobs, but I was still hanging on for the Kent job.
Contacted them again and laid out the position, have you made a decision as I'm going to start a new job on Monday but would prefer to work at your job.
They came back with an offer of a 6 week trial, so they could look at me and I could look at them which I agreed to.
Did my 6 weeks working on average 60 hours per week, the travel was reasonable considering it is a 94 mile round trip, with only a few nightmare trips on the homeward journey.
Most of the people I was actually working with assumed I had been employed on a permanent basis and didn't see any reason that I wouldn't be.
At the end of the 6 weeks I arranged yet another interview with the management who informed me that they still hadn't made a decision? but would let me know in the next week.
Two weeks later and despite contacting them no decision has yet been made, so it was back to the job centre to go through that whole routine again.
No redundancy pay forthcoming.
After a lot of promises about jobs being available back at the Power station as soon as my contract company were out of the picture, nothing actually happened.
Finally applied for Jobseekers near the end of January, then attended an interview with a suitable employer down in Kent which went well.
Went through the demeaning process of signing on with the usual "look down your nose" JSA person, who gives you rubbish information while following whatever the new government guidelines are.
Had a second interview at the Kent job which again went well, they promised a decision within a week (mid February), waited and waited while nothing came through.
Spent a day going through all the jobs available on a multitude of jobs agencies then made a couple of calls to people I have worked with.
Months later I'm still waiting for any replies from any of the jobs advertised on job sites, but did get a couple of interviews through the leads offered by friends.
By the 18th February I had been offered 2 jobs, but I was still hanging on for the Kent job.
Contacted them again and laid out the position, have you made a decision as I'm going to start a new job on Monday but would prefer to work at your job.
They came back with an offer of a 6 week trial, so they could look at me and I could look at them which I agreed to.
Did my 6 weeks working on average 60 hours per week, the travel was reasonable considering it is a 94 mile round trip, with only a few nightmare trips on the homeward journey.
Most of the people I was actually working with assumed I had been employed on a permanent basis and didn't see any reason that I wouldn't be.
At the end of the 6 weeks I arranged yet another interview with the management who informed me that they still hadn't made a decision? but would let me know in the next week.
Two weeks later and despite contacting them no decision has yet been made, so it was back to the job centre to go through that whole routine again.
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