GOG47:
I’m no economist and maybe this view is a bit simplistic but does anyone else suspect that the NMW is actually a brake on earnings, the endless supply of cheap foreign labour coming from economies where £8 odd an hour is problably 3time what they earn at home coupled with the universal credit effect where the work-shy and people trapped on benefits have to go out and work and bosses have no real need to pay anymore, discuss
Thank Gordon Brown for this, his tax credit scheme has been nothing but a subsidy for employers why pay a decent wage when the government will top it up. Labour’s reasoning for this was if you make someone dependant on you then they will always vote for you, all Labour had to do at election time was say that the Tories were going to take it away and people would vote Labour.
GOG47:
I’m no economist and maybe this view is a bit simplistic but does anyone else suspect that the NMW is actually a brake on earnings, the endless supply of cheap foreign labour coming from economies where £8 odd an hour is problably 3time what they earn at home coupled with the universal credit effect where the work-shy and people trapped on benefits have to go out and work and bosses have no real need to pay anymore, discuss
Thank Gordon Brown for this, his tax credit scheme has been nothing but a subsidy for employers why pay a decent wage when the government will top it up. Labour’s reasoning for this was if you make someone dependant on you then they will always vote for you, all Labour had to do at election time was say that the Tories were going to take it away and people would vote Labour.
Thanks for confirming my suspicions lol, any time I bring this up people think I’m anti working class!. Strange how Blair/Brown introduced NMW and working tax credits and then opened the borders to the aforementioned endless supply of cheap foreign labour which more or less leads us to where we are now regarding Brexit. Those two still have a lot to answer for!
rob22888:
I used to work as a shelf stacker for Tesco.
Hourly rates look alright on paper vs truck drivers but full time contracts were hard to come by unless you were management, increasingly so as time went on. Staff working full time on days in the likes of Tesco are usually old timers on old contracts.
A full time contract is 37.5 hours… 37.5 x £8.50ph x 52 weeks = £16,575 per year. Overtime? Forget it. I could pick up the odd shift every now and again but usually got met with “sorry, no money in the budget” when I asked for extra hours. Section manager salaries are only in the low 20s, you have to get to senior management level in store before you would start matching your Class 1 earnings.
It is NOT a viable alternative to driving lorries for a living. You’d be skint. Why does this lame argument keep being rehashed?
Tesco full time contract 37.5 hours per week
A truck driver can often find himself working double this, per week to achieve the same standard of living as a shelf stacker.
Hence why it gets rehashed.
We can have a valid discussion about work/life balance and living within ones means, but the fact is a bloke currently working 70 hours a week to achieve a yearly wage of well over £30k, will not currently be able to afford to do a supermarket job paying £16k. It’s night and day. 16k is a near poverty wage is todays society. Same standard of living??
Very few jobs that pay you £30k+ are 40 hours in reality anyway, not unless you in some gravy train council office gig or the like. The FLT drivers that tip our wagons on a 6-2 shift, do not represent the rest of society. People working like dogs & doing long hours to achieve a decent wage, is not exclusive to HGV drivers - not by a long shot.
I’m not defending truck drivers wages, just trying as ever to apply some perspective to this issue.
Midweek night shift rates for class one on agency, PAYE as far as I know to boot.
Are these also “regional” rates then? How far north does one have to go before they cut out, as it seems the Midlands are paying these rates OK?
Why is Sainsbugs so far behind ?
I didn’t find out that Sainsburys were so far below par - until I went to the Dartford site for an assessment, only to find out that the £14ph rates touted at that time were for Umbrella Ltd Company drivers…
My understanding is that ASDA drivers are relieved that the “Merger” is falling through, as there was some fear at Asda that the low pay for Sainsburys drivers - would somehow rub off on the Asda drivers after the intended merger…
westermant:
I’ve seen supermarkets offering more to stack shelves than some agencies are for class 1 work.
Go for it then…
Be sure to tell us exactly how many hours per week you actually get to work (probably 20 if you’re lucky) and don’t forget to tell us what it’s like working under a 19yr old try-hard wanna-be manager with an overinflated sense of self importance who thinks anyone over the age of 35 is a crusty old useless waste of space who deserves nothing other than contempt and derision.
Oh and then tell us when you’re starting back on the ■■■■ easy job on the lorries… [emoji38]
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I’ve just changed over to hgv fitter but if that doesn’t work out I might give the supermarket a go. Ow go back to crying into your pillow you miserable bender
westermant:
Ow go back to crying into your pillow you miserable bender
How very mature…
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About as mature as your sarcastic comment earlier.
I wasn’t being sarcastic i was merely making a point, not really sure why you’ve gotten so bent out of shape about it for you to feel the need to resort to childish name calling though…
chester:
Why is Supermarket shelf stacker always given as an example to oppose truck driving wages.
Why are no other professions used as an analogy.
Is it because both roles are suitable for both, a shelf stacker can drive a truck, a truck driver can stack a shelf.
Yes I know a shelf stacker would have to pay for a licence.
I have to pay for a licence to go fishing for instance.
Probably because people think it’s a cushy number and anyone can do it.
It used to be cushy but is now hard work and closely monitored for productivity.
However not experience is required. No training to pay for and most roles have very little responsibility
Maybe at coop. But I have experience of the big two supermarkets and I’d say shelf stackers sill have it easy.
Let’s be honest - putting some stuff out and scanning a barcode is hardly rocket science.
20 years for Morrisons and Sainsbury’s before I started driving and I will agree with the post below it’s hard work. How hard you have it depends on your manager. They are getting harder now days because there are less people and it’s easy to monitor.
I did 64 hours of duty this week and booked 23 of them on break. I’ll stick to driving rather than stacking shelves
Jimmy McNulty:
[quote="
I bet you were on more than £8.50 per hour though
Yes but I drive 1.5 hours to tramp out of rugby for the week on nights.
Where I am in South Linc’s it has gone up but it’s not much more than £9 per hour doing fridges which is most of the work round there. Including the self tip aspect etc.
Could this post be flagged, then when the increase happens everyone can come back to it and start complaining their wages haven’t gone up, which they won’t because your wages exceed the National Living Wage.
Can’t really compare wages against long distance/trampers etc due to the long hours
But take your builders merchants.
You have woman/bloke sat in a warm office all day answers a phone sends a few emails. Usually has one eye on Facebook/YouTube.
Has access to proper toilet and canteen.
Then you have the driver out in all weather’s trying navigate residential streets in his 26t wagon. …no toilet facility. Making do with sandwiches and a flask.
Years ago the driver would be on at a rough guess £100 week more than the office bod.
For working exactly the same hours.
These days there pay is roughly the same.
That’s where the issue is.
edd1974:
Can’t really compare wages against long distance/trampers etc due to the long hours
But take your builders merchants.
You have woman/bloke sat in a warm office all day answers a phone sends a few emails. Usually has one eye on Facebook/YouTube.
Has access to proper toilet and canteen.
Then you have the driver out in all weather’s trying navigate residential streets in his 26t wagon. …no toilet facility. Making do with sandwiches and a flask.
Years ago the driver would be on at a rough guess £100 week more than the office bod.
For working exactly the same hours.
These days there pay is roughly the same.
That’s where the issue is.
To be fair the office and driver management are probably viewing their crap urban building deliveries and yard labouring job the same as if it was distance day bulk runs doing two drops a day and spending the spare time parked up eating sandwiches and drinking tea in the sunshine during the summer admiring the countryside before the trundle back to base.
So government raises minimum wage to 8.50 an hour.
Then in next breath it raises the amount you have to pay into the peoples pension.
So your not really any better off
Carryfast:
A country dominated by low paying ‘jobs’ varying wildly between under employment and over work in an over supplied labour market.All since its industry and with it job opportunities and demand for labour,was massacred long ago all based on the excuse that Brit workers expect too much pay for too little work so much better to give their jobs to the lowest bidder and what’s left goes to the Germans.
As for the road transport industry it’s so much better to send as much freight as possible by rail with resulting effects on job opportunities and wage levels within the industry.
Ok, how exactly was the demand for labour ‘massacred’?
) usually pays around the £12 per hour mark 
