Winseer:
Great post!I’ll just add that “Sick Pay” even at PAYE agencies - seems more scant by the day. I’ve spent 5 of the last 9 years on different agencies and during that time I’ve come across:
0 agencies that paid any sick pay for the 4 shifts I dropped through actual illness over this period. One of them - let me go over it.
2 days where I turned up on time for a shift, only to be told “I’d been cancelled, and if you try to claim a minimum call out for it - you’ll never work here again”
3 days where I was cancelled as I was putting my coat on to come in.
3 days where I was sent to the wrong depot for a shift. (1 of those, the depot put me to use, and I got paid though - so I tip my hat to what was then Yodel, Aylesford for that)
2 payslips where £27 was deducted, and they lied and lied and lied that “I’d be better off for it”. I wasn’t. I was £27 down for it.
1 Agency that tried to charge me for PPE when I was clearly using my own already.
1 agency that only paid “average hours from previous 2 weeks” as “holiday pay” - only to NEVER EVER let me take a holiday after I’d just done a 5-6 fortnight with weekends/nights shifts in it.
4 agencies that never even gave me a first shift.
2 agencies that offered me a first shift over 80 miles away, which I refused on the grounds of “economically unviable” (5 hours guaranteed, £10ph in 2012 - commuting from Medway, Kent to (old) Iceland Harlow)
1 agency that offered me £12ph and when I got paid it was minimum wage instead “You didn’t ask us for it in writing pal, and there’s plenty of other fish in the sea if you’re done with us…”
1 agency that kept offering me horrible sounding shifts, that I took - but then they phoned straight back to say it was cancelled.
1 client that wouldn’t give me a shift - if I didn’t have any 15 hour availability left for that week.…and on the upside…
2 client shifts (same agency) where I got paid 6 hours after being cancelled at the last minute
4 client shifts (2 agencies) where I was on “induction training” - but got paid. (supermarkets)
2 agencies where I got 12.07% of gross earnings paid into a “Holiday Pot” that then didn’t decay over time.
2 agencies that actually deducted the correct tax and NI - straight out of the gate.
2 agencies I didn’t get a back tax demand from HMRC over
3 agencies that didn’t “Let me go” over something that was clearly the client or agency’s fault.
2 agencies that actually had the promised “Plenty of work, ongoingly…”
1 agency that got me a temp-perm full time job for nearly three years at one of their clients
You’ve just stated what everyone of us who work for agencies have been or are going through. I just gave up one agency job for the promise of another better suited and lost a nights wage chasing something that when I turned up turned out to be multi-drop. In other words the promised job didn’t exist. I walked away and am now having to eat humble pie trying to get my old job back which wasn’t any great shakes either, but at least it was regular. I’ve got another 18 months or so till I retire and I’m off back abroad and I’ll be more than happy to leave all this behind me. 