Council Wages A Problem?

[bassett one 449]

just a observation that happened today,i had a top young man come to do some electrical work on behalf of SCC,what a nice clean,covid masked ect ,person,he came did a top class job and clean tidy ect,i said hope to get you again,he said sorry i am off to work for chesterfield council,i said thats a loss of a good young electician ,he explained that they pay £8,000 per year more and has he was married with a young familyand every penny counted,so he is leaving due to this reason,he also said sheffield council workers are paid low against what most other citys pay ect,i have no idea if this is true,but if it is no wonder we have a shortage of quality workers,i think its short sited as we could be training,then losing top young workers,can others explain whats the truth,but i cannot see it not being true as this young man was happy apart from the wages.

[Ghozer 112]

Most tradesmen (Electricians, Plumbers etc) are a 3rd party, contracted by SCC...

Either a larger 3rd party company that bids and 'wins' the contract for the work for the year... or an individual that was contacted to do some jobs...
 

[Anna B 1,401]

3 hours ago, bassett one said:

just a observation that happened today,i had a top young man come to do some electrical work on behalf of SCC,what a nice clean,covid masked ect ,person,he came did a top class job and clean tidy ect,i said hope to get you again,he said sorry i am off to work for chesterfield council,i said thats a loss of a good young electician ,he explained that they pay £8,000 per year more and has he was married with a young familyand every penny counted,so he is leaving due to this reason,he also said sheffield council workers are paid low against what most other citys pay ect,i have no idea if this is true,but if it is no wonder we have a shortage of quality workers,i think its short sited as we could be training,then losing top young workers,can others explain whats the truth,but i cannot see it not being true as this young man was happy apart from the wages.

Well it has the ring of truth about it to me, and it's a sad fact of life that people do have to chase the money particularly when they have a family to support.

 

All councils seem to be short of money, some more than others, but what worries me is that skilled tradespeople do seem to be in short supply as well. I think this is because the investment in the proper training is just not there any more.

 

It annoys me that, as we've seen in this pandemic, we take  really useful workers for granted and don't pay them their worth, yet we are prepared to tolerate the exorbitant salaries given to 'executives' and the like, who frankly IMO are not 'value for money.' This means that the gap between rich and poor is widening and causing havoc in the economy.

 

People rant on about the wicked trade unions trying to protect and raise the workers livelihoods in the 70's, and applaud Margaret Thatcher for bringing about their demise, yet say nothing about the ridiculous sums, often in the £millions, paid out to useless individuals at the top of the tree. 

[Funky_Gibbon 42]

As Ghozer said, it's highly likely this person was working as a contractor and is moving on to their next contract which just happens to offer them  a better reward. The days of councils having in-house workers that do this kind of work pretty much ended 2 or 3 decades ago. I have a friend who is part of a small trades company that puts in bids with various local authories in Yorkshire and Derbyshire for contracted tenders around such trade work and  their pay depends on the size of the contract agreed  by the owners of the company rather than any salary that SCC or whoever would decide upon.

[bassett one 449]

sorry he did work for SCC  and liked the job,repairing council tennents house as a electrician,but said the pay by the our council for a electrician was low compared to other councils accross england,so thats why hes gone to do the same job foe £8,000 per year more working for chesterfield council,so this job was not as a contractor.

[Pkingy 10]

9 hours ago, Ghozer said:

Most tradesmen (Electricians, Plumbers etc) are a 3rd party, contracted by SCC...

Either a larger 3rd party company that bids and 'wins' the contract for the work for the year... or an individual that was contacted to do some jobs...
 

 

6 hours ago, Funky_Gibbon said:

As Ghozer said, it's highly likely this person was working as a contractor and is moving on to their next contract which just happens to offer them  a better reward. The days of councils having in-house workers that do this kind of work pretty much ended 2 or 3 decades ago. I have a friend who is part of a small trades company that puts in bids with various local authories in Yorkshire and Derbyshire for contracted tenders around such trade work and  their pay depends on the size of the contract agreed  by the owners of the company rather than any salary that SCC or whoever would decide upon.

Sorry Funky Gibbon but you got your facts wrong mate. I worked for the council as a plumber for 30years took early retirement last year. The vast majority of tradesmen are employed by the council as was I. 

[andyofborg 11]

It may be that his new role is at a higher grade and that accounts for at least some of the difference. It may be that there are no roles at that grade are currently available in Sheffield. 

 

 

[Pkingy 10]

The only way a plumber would get more money is if he is gas registered 

Edited March 28, 2021 by nikki-red

[GleadlessLad 12]

8 hours ago, Funky_Gibbon said:

As Ghozer said, it's highly likely this person was working as a contractor and is moving on to their next contract which just happens to offer them  a better reward. The days of councils having in-house workers that do this kind of work pretty much ended 2 or 3 decades ago. I have a friend who is part of a small trades company that puts in bids with various local authories in Yorkshire and Derbyshire for contracted tenders around such trade work and  their pay depends on the size of the contract agreed  by the owners of the company rather than any salary that SCC or whoever would decide upon.

This work was outsourced to Kier from around 2000 to 2017, when it was brought back in house.  Hence SCC do now directly employ electricians etc.  However they do have contracts with private companies for this sort of work too.

[Leadhammer 10]

16 hours ago, bassett one said:

just a observation that happened today,i had a top young man come to do some electrical work on behalf of SCC,what a nice clean,covid masked ect ,person,he came did a top class job and clean tidy ect,i said hope to get you again,he said sorry i am off to work for chesterfield council,i said thats a loss of a good young electician ,he explained that they pay £8,000 per year more and has he was married with a young familyand every penny counted,so he is leaving due to this reason,he also said sheffield council workers are paid low against what most other citys pay ect,i have no idea if this is true,but if it is no wonder we have a shortage of quality workers,i think its short sited as we could be training,then losing top young workers,can others explain whats the truth,but i cannot see it not being true as this young man was happy apart from the wages.

Been more or less told the same from Sheffield City Council electricians when I've had work done, most of them asked for pay rise council was nope don't like find somewhere else to work so they did which has in turn left the council short of electricians the only ones that remain are the ones close to retirement and of course when those leave new talent isn't available, cant blame them but from a resident of the council it isn't ideal whilst waiting for work to be carried out as your often waiting months for them all be it that was a few years ago now the last work i had done was smoke alarms and it was a private contractor that did the work.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Leadhammer

[bassett one 449]

is this a idea to end up with just private contractors?it seems such a great shame when we have nice quality young trades people leaving not to work for themselves,but leaving to work for neighbouring district councils like chesterfield as they pay £8,000 a year more,he said he thought sheffield was the lowest pay for tradesmen,is this because now its back in house,its often said SCC like this as they can move around there income as needed,but its a sad loss,and will end up where we lose out as young men especially those with familys ect,need cash income as many only have that as a income.

[Funky_Gibbon 42]

5 hours ago, Pkingy said:

 

Sorry Funky Gibbon but you got your facts wrong mate. I worked for the council as a plumber for 30years took early retirement last year. The vast majority of tradesmen are employed by the council as was I. 

Fair enough, I stand corrected.