JeffA:
Im just going on what the agencies paid in 2007. It was min wage or 50 pence more for class 1. Did agency rates drop from 2004 rates?
In real terms, yes especially from 2008, in pounds and pence when it came to weekend and bank holidays, god yes. The most money I ever got paid driving a lorry was August bank holiday in 2003, I was on triple time as was the norm for bank holidays at many places and got £21/hr. In 2021 work on agency at a company where the hourly rate on days is £16.17 and if I do a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday for them I get just under £20/hr, basically time and a fifth. Not time and a half which used to be the norm for a Saturday, not double time that used to be the norm for a Sunday, just time and a fifth. That is what happened due to employment conditions being eroded by EU migration.
I had to quit driving in 2008. In 2013 I returned back to the same agency at the same client and the pay was exactly the same in pounds and pence as it was in 2008, that’s despite inflation having risen 16.4% in the same time so something that cost £10 in 2008 would have cost £11.64 in 2013. So the wages had effectively suffered a 16% pay cut over 5 years.