I have just been informed that a large chemical concern in the UK, (three initials make up their name) are taking on foreign workers (not drivers I hasten to add) and paying them £2.00 per hour and the British Government is making up the difference to the minimum wage. 
Anyone heard of this??
Is this the same company who’s name is very similar to the utensil you’d make a chinese meal in ?
All eastern european worker’s are paid low hourly rates like that. The rest is made up with Government funding.
what a pile of bull
i dont belive it.
sounds bogus to me an all, but if it is true, it stinks!
For those naysayer’s, this is what’s been going on for a long time now. The employer pays a very low rate and the rest is made up of Government subsidiaries. Apparently it’s all to do with the alleged driver shortage hence why the Government is putting their hand in their pocket and also hence why companies are trying to get hold of as many eastern european driver’s as they can get their hands on 
.
I thought this was common knowledge? 
Rob, he said they wernt drivers. But, whatever, it’s a racket, taxpayers funding big business, they got it stitched better than the mafia!
NO i cant believe it i am flabbergasted and EXTERMELY surprised to hear of such horrors, and to think that in the area where this might be happening there could be people from within the area and the country where its happening who might not have jobs.
I,m amazed that this might have an effect on the local work-force I.E. bringing the rates people are paid to such a low rate…Just like what will happen to the business we work in slowly but surely the rates are going to fall not for the hauliers but for the drivers.
An industry that will never have the ability to stick together on anything like this.
it’s wrong thinks i.
if the company are bringing the workers over (ie they are paying for the travel costs).
housing them in accommodation.
training them in english language then they do not have to pay them the minimum wage, well they do but they don’t if you see what i mean.
the company must pay them a minimum wage but can deduct from that the cost of travel, housing and training from the wage.
this is unfair because the company is not restricted in how much it can stop from the wages and it can stop the money on an hourly basis which means the more work the employee does then the more that employee pays for the travel, accommodation and training but the company don’t pay any more for any of the above, it’s a fixed cost to the company but a variable and rising cost to the employee.
in other words it’s a scam by unscrupulous employers who have discovered a hole in the employment regulations.
Rob K:
For those naysayer’s, this is what’s been going on for a long time now. The employer pays a very low rate and the rest is made up of Government subsidiaries. Apparently it’s all to do with the alleged driver shortage hence why the Government is putting their hand in their pocket and also hence why companies are trying to get hold of as many eastern european driver’s as they can get their hands onI thought this was common knowledge?
Errrrrrrr…Rob K
You as Brite may can tell my if i can work on way’s like selfemployed to safe Tax?
If Tony is working to get a nice Job by EC after his Carrer in British Politik shall he not doing it with my Tax i pay.
If it’s allowed to say it that Way
fred Kanka:
Rob K:
For those naysayer’s, this is what’s been going on for a long time now. The employer pays a very low rate and the rest is made up of Government subsidiaries. Apparently it’s all to do with the alleged driver shortage hence why the Government is putting their hand in their pocket and also hence why companies are trying to get hold of as many eastern european driver’s as they can get their hands onI thought this was common knowledge?
Errrrrrrr…Rob K
You as Brite may can tell my if i can work on way’s like selfemployed to safe Tax?
If Tony is working to get a nice Job by EC after his Carrer in British Politik shall he not doing it with my Tax i pay.
If it’s allowed to say it that Way
Sorry Fred but I don’t understand what you’re trying to say ?
My guess is that it’s another urban myth, same as you can’t drive 2 10hrs in a row 
we have a local firm who receives £100 per week for each foreign driver employed
Rob K:
Sorry Fred but I don’t understand what you’re trying to say ?
Can someone let me know too not just on this post but on some of his others, fred put in Austrian and then someone can translate it for you 
;).
jammymutt:
Rob K:
Sorry Fred but I don’t understand what you’re trying to say ?Can someone let me know too not just on this post but on some of his others, fred put in Austrian and then someone can translate it for you
jammy, Austrian isn’t a language - they speak German.
Anyway, never mind worrying about what Fred’s trying to say - I have trouble making out some of the stuff on here by supposedly native English speakers 
Urban myth or not, i’m in feet 1st to join this one
I heard that if these migrant workers return to their native land after 11 mths, they can claim back their tax and insurance
I’m not sure wether i’m for or against, but i do know that its wrong to use migrant workers to cut wages, and i do find it suspect that the RTD was’nt put into effect until these former eastern block countries were admitted to the european union, thus putting on stream an available pool of cheap labour.
There was a poor old farmer on the news the other day who will have to waste a couple of fields of strawberries because he has noone to pick them for him, it seems all the foreign workforce who used to do it have now gone home due to it being seasonal.
I have never really liked farmers that much i dislike this one more than any other now.
WHY waste the food cant he get British people to do it?..
At one of my previous places of employment, they employed loads of Estonians and whilst I have no proof, it was said that the company got some sort of EU funding given to them for employing them due to some sort of scheme running to reduce unemployment in the new EU states. Needless to say within a year Estonians out-numbered English workers and the yard I worked at is all Estonian now. I opted to leave when an Estonian took control of us and would always be stinking of alcohol after disapearing for 10 minutes at a time several times a day and be staggering around and the whole place fell to pieces due to him giving us the wrong relases so trucks would keep on arriving and their loads were not ready. Me and another English guy still working there complained about him being drunk but all they did was warn him not to get caught drink driving by the police, I was gonna leave to do my Class 2 anyway so I just finished a little bit earlier, as did everyone else. Its not hard for companies to replace a work force, none of us were sacked, we all went by choice, but only because things became impossible and and downright dangerous.
robinhood_1984:
At one of my previous places of employment, they employed loads of Estonians and whilst I have no proof, it was said that the company got some sort of EU funding given to them for employing them due to some sort of scheme running to reduce unemployment in the new EU states.
This is what I’ve been trying to get through to people right from the start but everyone just thinks it’s an urban myth .
jammymutt:
There was a poor old farmer on the news the other day who will have to waste a couple of fields of strawberries because he has noone to pick them for him, it seems all the foreign workforce who used to do it have now gone home due to it being seasonal.I have never really liked farmers that much i dislike this one more than any other now.
WHY waste the food cant he get British people to do it?..
Frankly, no. Since the New Age Travellers were run off the road, no-one else is prepared to do what is extremely hard work for very littlle reward. Picking work is paid as cash-in-hand piecework - it has to be that way as the returns are so low that it would be completely unviable to do it “on the cards” - and you really do have to go dawn 'til dusk in all weathers to make it pay. Strawberries are particularly backbreaking…but I’ve done daffs, apples, hops, elderflower, and many others too, and they all take their toll after a year or two.
The reason this guy can’t get foreign workers is probably more to do with them having moved on to the apples - it’s high season for them now. The Poles were just starting to come over and pick when I came out of the game, and the ones I met were great guys - funny, genuine, polite, and generous to a fault. They could earn in a week what it took them a month to achieve back home, despite being on the same low rate as the rest of us.
Why can’t the farmer get UK workers? Because no-one’s prepared to do the hard, thankless work any more. Why not raise the rate? Because Joe Public ie. you and me - via the supermarkets - want our food cheap. Even if the money were better, that doesn’t take away the physically punishing aspect.
It’s certainly not his fault, so I can see no reason at all to “dislike” him.
Once upon a time, workers from London and other cities would go and do the picking to fund the family holiday in the country…if you feel that strongly about the waste Jammy, why not book a couple of weeks off driving and go and continue this tradition by offering your services? And, no, I’m not even slightly joking.