You passed your class C 6 months ago and class C+E 4 months ago, you’ve been fortunate enough to get regular agency work and are now at the point where the work is pretty much 5 / 6 days a week, pays reasonably (£500 - £6o0 a week) and you enjoy it. Then you get offered a permanent job with a well known haulage company but the pay is £8.50 an hour (plus holidays) although you can expect to get in an average of 55 hours a week (incl POA) but are guranteed 40.
The only person who can decide is you. You need to decide what you want from a/the job. Do you want the flexibility of working when you want and at comparatively good money, but risk the down sides of the possibilities of no work when it’s quiet, or do you want the comfort and relative security of a full-time position where you’ll have a fairly stable income every month, but at a lesser rate than you’d perhaps like. The decision is yours …
£8.50 per hour … 55 hours a week… is it a flat rate for all the hours or are the 15 hours over the 40 at a different rate
It time & half over the 40 then that makes over £500 a week gross
Rob K:
It’s a question with no right/wrong answer!
The only person who can decide is you. You need to decide what you want from a/the job. Do you want the flexibility of working when you want and at comparatively good money, but risk the down sides of the possibilities of no work when it’s quiet, or do you want the comfort and relative security of a full-time position where you’ll have a fairly stable income every month, but at a lesser rate than you’d perhaps like. The decision is yours …
Decided to turn the job down. When it comes down to it, I’m not prepared to work for £8.50 an hour flat rate. Do the maths, even if you managed to get in 60 hours, you only earn a shade over £500 gross and on 40 hours that’s less than what I earned 20 years ago. Shame really as the company in question is a well known reasonably sized local company with nice trucks. Can’t understand why they won’t pay at least decent wages i.e time and a half over 40, maybe more at weekends. That way you’ll get a committed workforce who are loyal and up for the cause. Penny pinching worker’s wages achieves nothing in my view, even when times are relatively tough.
On the agency front, I hear what people say about being messed about and not knowing what they’re doing from one day to the next. In my case, I have a good relationship with the agency I work for ( although I have come across others who are nothing short of human traffickers). They’re keeping me more and more busy with the same companies, the flexibility kind of suits me anyway and I’m making a half decent whack. So that’s what I’m going to carry on doing for the short term.
MAT:
Decided to turn the job down. When it comes down to it, I’m not prepared to work for £8.50 an hour flat rate. Do the maths, even if you managed to get in 60 hours, you only earn a shade over £500 gross and on 40 hours that’s less than what I earned 20 years ago. Shame really as the company in question is a well known reasonably sized local company with nice trucks. Can’t understand why they won’t pay at least decent wages i.e time and a half over 40, maybe more at weekends. That way you’ll get a committed workforce who are loyal and up for the cause. Penny pinching worker’s wages achieves nothing in my view, even when times are relatively tough.
On the agency front, I hear what people say about being messed about and not knowing what they’re doing from one day to the next. In my case, I have a good relationship with the agency I work for ( although I have come across others who are nothing short of human traffickers). They’re keeping me more and more busy with the same companies, the flexibility kind of suits me anyway and I’m making a half decent whack. So that’s what I’m going to carry on doing for the short term.
Thanks for your input anyway.
Good luck, sounds like you have made the right choice.
but id rather be employed than agency id ban them be a name not a number.