Rate of pay for a ground worker with basic tickets

[Andy Collins]

£325 gross is £8.125 per hr, way over minimum wage, yet a reasonable amount when you consider the perks of employment.

I've just read through my lads Contract of Employment, he gets 32 days paid leave, 5 days paid sick leave, all training and ppe relevant to his position, 2 weeks paternity leave, min wage while on apprenticeship, with £3k payment upon completion of apprenticeship. He is 21. I think he is on a pretty good crack for 21 and being trained. The perks are certainly attractive.

[Ty Korrigan]

A silver sixpence for your trouble young man and a pickled egg for the road God bless you.

 

We pay our groundies (self employed) 120-150euros per day gross.

That is £70+ nett.

For some-one who does not need to think to much, just drag branches, pull on a rake and also gets fed a 3 course restuarant meal with wine and given a free t'shirt its 20euros above the minimum wage here and STILL people moan about the pay rate.

Except Auld Rab who is 63 going on 28 and is worth every centime!

Ty

[skyhuck]

This is a very relevant and interesting thread considering the supposed crack down on subbies.

 

I think the £325 is pretty fair Andy.

 

What about some one on a zero hour contract who maybe only gets 3 days some weeks, I guess they would need more??

 

Or do you guarantee the 5 days and keep them busy even when the weather is bad or trade is slow??

[18 stoner]

£325 gross is £8.125 per hr, way over minimum wage, yet a reasonable amount when you consider the perks of employment.

I've just read through my lads Contract of Employment, he gets 32 days paid leave, 5 days paid sick leave, all training and ppe relevant to his position, 2 weeks paternity leave, min wage while on apprenticeship, with £3k payment upon completion of apprenticeship. He is 21. I think he is on a pretty good crack for 21 and being trained. The perks are certainly attractive.

 

On that wage, and those perks, I'd consider it myself!

 

Very good wage IMO for a brash rat on the books.

[Andy Collins]

I think you have to keep a position attractive, if your not going to pay them when there is no work (if that's what you mean?) they could not budget a living from ifs and maybes and a pocketful of thank yous. This is the tricky bit in our job, taking last summer as a fine example of bad weather (bad clothing?) trying to fit certain jobs in around the weather sometimes is nearly impractical, if not impossible. But that is not the employees fault, it is down to the employer to source the work and keep his men in work... Somehow. If that means cutting grass, trimming hedges or cleaning pavements then that's what it is.

[skyhuck]

I think you have to keep a position attractive, if your not going to pay them when there is no work (if that's what you mean?) they could not budget a living from ifs and maybes and a pocketful of thank yous. This is the tricky bit in our job, taking last summer as a fine example of bad weather (bad clothing?) trying to fit certain jobs in around the weather sometimes is nearly impractical, if not impossible. But that is not the employees fault, it is down to the employer to source the work and keep his men in work... Somehow. If that means cutting grass, trimming hedges or cleaning pavements then that's what it is.

 

The thing is I'm sure there are many on here who currently use SE lads, who are only used when needed.

 

Because they are SE they get more in their hand and get to keep more of it by various means, such as claiming expenses.

 

Now many of these will need to be "on the books" if recent reports are correct.

 

So its going to be a difficult transition for both the employer and employee.

[Andy Collins]

Quite agree Huck, and more so for the employer I'd guess. I help a friend out occasionally, and he said I'd have to be on the books if I wanted to help him. I told him I would no longer be available if that were the case. There are certain jobs that he would prefer me to do for him, I told him just to sub contract them fully to me in future. Whether he will or not I've yet to find out. I'm not that fussed, the ball is in his court IMO. In my own case, I have spent my life scrabbing about, now I have to look after no1!

[Rich Rule]

But it was before tax, so why the sarcasm??

 

My bee must have been in my bonnet. Oh well, it should have said after tax.

 

[frenchy]

would anyone pay up to £80 for a hard working groundie, not afraid to get stuck in, all revelant tickets etc. Or do most people think they are only worth around the £60 mark, would be interesting to know

[KingoftheRing]

Not wishing to get flamed but I believe a good groundie is on a similar footing to a good climber:

 

A good groundie can think ahead of the climber, anticipate what he might need next.

A good groundie can direct climber when doing reductions etc

A good groundie can be an asset when doing dismantles (placement of lowering device to prevent over shaking of tree, good control of lowering line letting it run etc).

A good groundie watches out for the climber's safety.

A good groundie moves the climbers rope if he thinks it might get snagged before being asked.

A good groundie chats to customers.

A good groundie takes time to move things that might get broken (plant pots).

A good groundie does a lot of hard work clearing branches etc

 

It's been a long time since I worked in a professional environment on the trees but when I did I worked as a groundie and a climber. Some days, I swore it was easier being a climber.

 

I expect a groundie and climber to work as an equal team.

 

There have been posts asking where all the good groundies are but if you are paying £65 a day, can you expect great groundies?