Day rate for groundie?

[PSP]

2 hours ago, Donnie said:

 

Psp. I’ve a Scottish whatsapp group for forestry and tree surgeon malarky. 
 

I can send the link on pm. 
 

They post shifts there too

Ah yes Donnie please do send me the WhatsApp link, that would be great.

[Brushcutter]

Minimum wage is £11.44 an hour.which is £91.52 a day. So anybody turning up to work has to get that as a minimum. In short we all price ourselves too low. 

[eggsarascal]

5 minutes ago, Brushcutter said:

Minimum wage is £11.44 an hour.which is £91.52 a day. So anybody turning up to work has to get that as a minimum. In short we all price ourselves too low. 

Only on the books does minimum wage apply, if a freelancer agrees to work for less that’s up to them. If people are pricing low that their lookout, it’s not a race to the bottom, anyone can say shove it to the paymaster.

[SussexHarry]

53 minutes ago, Brushcutter said:

Minimum wage is £11.44 an hour.which is £91.52 a day. So anybody turning up to work has to get that as a minimum. In short we all price ourselves too low. 

Definitely. Considering the risks involved in tree work I wouldn’t dream of showing up for anything less than minimum wage and that would be with zero tickets and zero experience. I think anyone agreeing to step foot on a site for £80 a day is selling themselves incredibly short - then again if they’re agreeing to that wage then perhaps the problems go deeper than simply selling one’s self short.

 

I think arboriculture wages are far behind the other trades. Considering it takes thousands of pounds in equipment and training to become qualified and the risks of injury involved in the work, you’d think employees would be paid fairly. Unfortunately there’s an industry-norm of underpaying people and keeping them as self employed contractors (i.e: disguised employees).

 

One of the firms I trialed with offered me full-time work as a “contractor” 5 days a week (but still wanted me to show up at specific times, stay until he said I could go, and call him “boss”). This unfortunately appears to be fairly standard for the industry, but is through all intents and purposes a predatory employment tactic that provides the company with full time staff, but exempts them from paying NI, sick pay, paid leave, and protects them from any liabilities should they get injured at work. I was insulted to be offered this. But it seems quite common!

 

Almost makes me think there’s a gap in the market in the arb industry for a company that treats employees fairly and legally.

[andrew]

2 hours ago, Brushcutter said:

Minimum wage is £11.44 an hour.which is £91.52 a day. So anybody turning up to work has to get that as a minimum. In short we all price ourselves too low. 

 

Though a less generous employer may take off an hour for breaks, and pay a 7 hour day / 35 hour week.

 

For parity with an employee on a good contract, a freelancer should be allowing extra in lieu  of holiday pay, sick pay, employers NI, doing their own admin / tax etc. plus an allowance for PPE and maybe travel. Probably 30-50+ % on the equivalent employed rate.

 

Not sure how many of us could ask that and get much work? 

 

2 hours ago, eggsarascal said:

Only on the books does minimum wage apply, if a freelancer agrees to work for less that’s up to them. If people are pricing low that their lookout, it’s not a race to the bottom, anyone can say shove it to the paymaster.

 

In theory maybe.

How many younger workers can afford to turn down £80 a day (or whatever they might be offered)  if they need to pay bills and get experience?

[eggsarascal]

15 minutes ago, andrew said:

 

Though a less generous employer may take off an hour for breaks, and pay a 7 hour day / 35 hour week.

 

For parity with an employee on a good contract, a freelancer should be allowing extra in lieu  of holiday pay, sick pay, employers NI, doing their own admin / tax etc. plus an allowance for PPE and maybe travel. Probably 30-50+ % on the equivalent employed rate.

 

Not sure how many of us could ask that and get much work? 

 

 

In theory maybe.

How many younger workers can afford to turn down £80 a day (or whatever they might be offered)  if they need to pay bills and get experience?

Read back, this fella has experience in forestry, and much more, he’s got machine tickets, and so on.  He’s ticketed up to his boots. He could pull on any construction site and earn decent money without being mugged off by some tree company, hence, I said, stick to his machine work.