Clearly i dont have a clue about forestry or arboriculture, but...

[Ganit]

My video diary from when i was doing brashing for workfare/MWA.

For your edification and amusement.

 

Part one

And part two

 

Someone who uses this forum suggested i might post them here and i thought i couldt do any harm.

[Mortimer Firewood]

My video diary from when i was doing brashing for workfare/MWA.

For your edification and amusement.

 

Part one

And part two

 

Someone who uses this forum suggested i might post them here and i thought i couldt do any harm.

 

Your last two words said it all!!!!!!!!!

[Tom Wilding]

Sorry, but what does brashing succeed in ?

[Kennedy]

If done properly a better end crop along with proper thinning

[kernowstu]

If done properly a better end crop along with proper thinning

 

then you have the high prunning:001_smile:

[Kennedy]

Of course, goes without saying.

[Kennedy]

No PPE supplied for hand brashing, that's ludicrous. Working for 4 days at £12 a day is terrible (£48 a week) how do you manage rent and the like??? and as for having to wash every day and buy all your own extra food with nothing extra to help you tut tut, here I'll get a kitty together for you to help you out and get you a nice break away, lazy muppet...

[Ian Leach]

No PPE supplied for hand brashing, that's ludicrous. Working for 4 days at £12 a day is terrible (£48 a week) how do you manage rent and the like??? and as for having to wash every day and buy all your own extra food with nothing extra to help you tut tut, here I'll get a kitty together for you to help you out and get you a nice break away, lazy muppet...

 

Out of order:thumbdown:

 

Lets assume it's this working links Working Links | Work Programme | Welfare to work | Training , so will get help with benefits whilst doing the workfare/MWA. So really what you get won't cover your costs of the extra food consumption, travel etc etc . Just like the people who done the stewarding for the queens jubilee...... Just goes to show what some people go through when looking for work.

[Gnarlyoak]

OK so inadequate PPE, tools, training and lone working are all valid issues to a certain extent that should have been properly addressed by the service provider and the company providing the work scheme opportunity. The employer statement that this type of work is only worth £12 per day, might be true to them in economic terms, but legally if they employed sopmeone to do this 8 hrs per day then they would have to pay the minimum wage. That would also be true even if they employed eastern europeans from EEC member countries.

 

Min. Wage. Rates per hour:-

£6.08 - the main rate for workers aged 21 and over

£4.98 - the 18-20 rate

£3.68 - the 16-17 rate for workers above school leaving age but under 18

£2.60 - the apprentice rate, for apprentices under 19 or 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship.

 

So even an apprentice would legally have to be paid £20.80 per day. The poster certainly seems to be over 21, so doing this full time would see him earning £6.08 per hour, £48.64 per day, £243.20 per week, £12646.40 gross (before tax) per annum. £12.5K p/a as a starting point has got to be better than sitting on your backside watching daytime TV on job seekers allowance.

 

Having been in the unenviable position of being long term unemployed in the past, I know how its all too easy to lose hope, motivation and fall into the benefits trap. If back then I had been given such an opportunity to go out into the forest and do a bit of "conny bashing" I'd have jumped at the chance even without having my benefits topped up for daily expenses.

 

Sometimes you need a kick up the arse to kickstart your motivation to double your efforts to find a proper job. This is yours, embrace it, use it to try and turn it into something positive. Your concerns regarding PPE, equipment, lone working have some legitimacy, but this should be discussed as feedback to the service provider, don't go bleating to your MP about it. Thats pointless IMO, everyone knows that politicians are far too busy snuffling their snouts in the trough of public expenses with a gilt edged gold plated guaranteed pension for life to give a stuff about the people they are supposed to represent.

 

Now I fully understand that simply saying "use this opportunity to motivate yourself to find a proper job" may sound glib and not as easy as it sounds in the current economic climate. My spell of unemployment ended when I started a voluntary project to clear up a local blot on the landscape, this gave me the confidence to finally go out and start working for myself, this when the world was still on its arse after the last banking crisis in 2008. Admittedly I had several years experience, PPE and tools that I needed to do so, but it would have been all too easy to languish in the benefits trap for even longer if I'd chosen not to make something of the opportunites that my voluntary experience put before me.

 

Its not easy, but life is'nt easy. Sell your camera, buy some tools and crack on my son....

[Rob D]

...tut tut, here I'll get a kitty together for you to help you out and get you a nice break away, lazy muppet...

 

 

 

It's his first post and he's taken the time to put a vid up and this is the best reply you can give? Working like that 4 weeks for no money is hardly lazy

 

 

Good on you for sticking it as long as you did - the only thing you can do is keep trying until you find something better. Keep your head down and keep looking.