By chance I received notice from hmrc to apply for a tax rebate today. To ensure my identity they ask 6 questions 3 of them were - my name as it appears on my passport - the date my passport expires and the number of my passport. All of these to be stored by an agency which might well have no intention of offering me a job at all !
Loggo:
By chance I received notice from hmrc to apply for a tax rebate today. To ensure my identity they ask 6 questions 3 of them were - my name as it appears on my passport - the date my passport expires and the number of my passport. All of these to be stored by an agency which might well have no intention of offering me a job at all !
I don’t understand. So you’re saying the agency would have no possibility of answering all 6 questions correctly, yet you don’t trust them?
I don’t think I’d like it - if my agency asked me no questions at all, and told me to accept pay in bitcoin.
Better you have a working relationship based on you know things about them and they know enough about you to give you that better job you’d probablly otherwise get passed over for elsewhere…
I posted a CV on line just under a year back, and although 90% of the replies were from chancers trying to get me to work officially for crap pay, or offered me the sky for a dubious-sounding “behind the bike sheds” deal - I only needed just the one proper, and bona-fide reply to rescue me from the utter perdition that was lockdown without pay I endured the year previously, forced to take a £12ph job and all…
Just registered with a couple of agencies who demanded my passport, I blaired some of the numbers so if someone wanted to use it for wrongful purposes they can’t
yourhavingalarf:
Sidevalve:
it was common practice to take a copy of an agency driver’s licence before they even got in a truck. Don’t recall any of them objecting. why would you; unless you’ve got something to hide?They don’t object…
Because they’ll be going home unpaid if they refuse.
coerce
verb [ T ]
formal
uk
/kəʊˈɜːs/ us
/koʊˈɝːs/
to persuade someone forcefully to do something that they are unwilling to do:
So, you’re trusting someone with a lorry and a load, possibly only for one shift; and you’re happy if that driver does some damage or has an accident without informing you, and you have no record of who he is without asking the agency?
Or you get a speeding ticket for the lorry and you’re asked to provide details of who was driving, and can’t? DVSA don’t take kindly to that.
That’s not coercion matey, it’s plain common sense. The company is covering its arse, as it has every right to.
Macski:
Just registered with a couple of agencies who demanded my passport, I blaired some of the numbers so if someone wanted to use it for wrongful purposes they can’t
They ask for your passport because they have to check by law if you have a right to work in the UK or face a huge fine, at any given moment they need to be able to show who is legally working for them just like any other company.
Whilst I understand you want to make sure nobody steals your ID that passport number is to check you are who you say you are, if you go to any middle to large employer they are all going to ask for a copy of your cards, NI number and a passport for an ID check
Sidevalve:
The company is covering its arse, as it has every right to.
Absoulutely…
The company has every right to cover it’s arse and ensure that the people it hires are who they say they are.
What you actually said was.
Sidevalve:
Don’t recall any of them objecting. why would you; unless you’ve got something to hide?
They don’t have anything to hide but, they do know if they don’t produce a licence they will go home unpaid. Therefore, they are coerced into showing their ID.
I should add at this point. It’s turned into this situation of driver checks because the slack-arsed take the money and run agencies didn’t ensure the drivers they hired were legit in the first place. So companies ended up with non-qualified people turning up and doing shifts.
We need a better system. Worringly, facial recognition might be the what we end up with big brother.
yourhavingalarf:
Sidevalve:
The company is covering its arse, as it has every right to.Absoulutely…
The company has every right to cover it’s arse and ensure that the people it hires are who they say they are.
What you actually said was.
Sidevalve:
Don’t recall any of them objecting. why would you; unless you’ve got something to hide?They don’t have anything to hide but, they do know if they don’t produce a licence they will go home unpaid. Therefore, they are coerced into showing their ID.
So companies ended up with non-qualified people turning up and doing shifts.We need a better system. Worringly, facial recognition might be the what we end up with big brother.
Agencies ended up with people who were imposters. So it is reasonable for them to ask for ID.
A prospective worker is not coerced into providing ID, they can drop out and go elsewhere.
Am I coerced into not thumping an idiot by the threat of prison? Bad choice of terminology, I reckon.
yourhavingalarf:
I should add at this point. It’s turned into this situation of driver checks because the slack-arsed take the money and run agencies didn’t ensure the drivers they hired were legit in the first place.
So, they are checking now …and youre complaining... because they were lazy and didnt do these checks before?
(PS you mentioned Big Brother, is this "doublethink?) 
Just thought I’d add this to the conversation in general in that I was also in the bus industry and photocopies of your licence, cpc card, passport are standard practise, in fact they’ll get you to sign a waiver allowing them check on your licence whenever they like whilst under their employment.
My new current hgv job wanted the same with copies of my licence, cpc, tacho cards, passport & NI card, also I have to have an background check for references, a criminal background check and a health assessment. So for all those that think a copy of your passport is too much I can’t wait to see your reaction when you get out into the wider world, because it either you do it or jog on.
yourhavingalarf:
They don’t have anything to hide but, they do know if they don’t produce a licence they will go home unpaid. Therefore, they are coerced into showing their ID.
I should add at this point. It’s turned into this situation of driver checks because the slack-arsed take the money and run agencies didn’t ensure the drivers they hired were legit in the first place. So companies ended up with non-qualified people turning up and doing shifts.We need a better system. Worringly, facial recognition might be the what we end up with big brother.
Nonsense. It’s turned into this because people with fake ID’s and fake driving licences tried to get work illegally, and agencies tightened up the system to ensure they were not caught out.
FYI I have come across this first-hand as I was both a TM and a recruitment consultant in previous lives. Hence my advice to anyone writing a CV, or indeed accepting one from a candidate, is that what it does NOT say is as important as what it does.
I once interviewed a prospective 7.5 tonne driver who brought glowing references from his previous employer; but oddly there was no mention of driving which is what he claimed to have done for them as his main job. Closer investigation revealed that he’d been banned for drink driving, had held on to his paper licence (which had no endorsements on it) and was trying to blag a job with us. Can you imagine what could have happened had I taken his licence at face value, sent him out on a job and he’d had an accident?
Thankfully it’s far more difficult to pull that sort of stunt these days because unless a prospective employer is incredibly desperate or stupid, they will check a licence with DVLA at interview.
Franglais:
and you`re complaining
I’m not…
Complaining Frangles, I’m discussing with sidevalve that some drivers have nothing to hide and other drivers do have things to hide.
When I turn up on site I just give them what ever they ask for.