Pay Cuts?

[Cyanide]

I've just found out that we're due to get what amounts to a 20% pay cut (ie, 20% extra work for the same money). We're also yet to even get close to having an inflation raise this year. I'm amazed our union's let this one through. The meeting on Friday with the managers where it's made official could get interesting.

Anyone else ever had something like this thrust upon them by their employer?

 

[Cyanide]

Getting 20% more work for the same money is not a 20% pay cut. Workload fluctuates, and in hard times, more work has to be done by fewer people.
Would you prefer that your employer had to lay off many people so they could pay the remainder an (according to you) acceptable pay increase?

We're currently having a recruitment drive and we made hideous profits last year so it's not as if they're struggling.

 

[Cyanide]

Just to clear things up... I'm not in the fire service

 

[Cyanide]

Quit and find a new job then. If more people did it, then conditions would need to change.

As much as I'd love to I currently don't have a spare £1000 that I'd need to re-pay my training fees.

 

[Cyanide]

It is dubious if these pay back clauses are actually legally binding. Something about breaching european restrictive working practices regulations.

Really? I haven't really looked in to it yet as I've only just found out about the cuts. All I know is that my contract says if I leave within the first 2 years of finishing the training I have to pay back the fees.

 

[Cyanide]

Are you being asked to do more hours for the same wage?

If their asking for 20% more output in the same hours, then thats not a pay cut, its not even overworking you, its just trying to squeeze some more efficiency out of you, if ifs physically possible to 20% more work in the hours your contracted for, and you cant manage it in the said amount of hours, maybe your just 20% lazier than everyone else?

We get a time allowance for every element of the installations we do. Installing a boiler and associated pipework, for example, is 8.62 hours. We have to do 40 hours worth of stuff in a week to get our basic wage. They're reducing the time allocated for each task by 20% but keeping the week at 40 hours - thus 20% more work.

20% more hours is a lot when you're already doing 40 hours manual labour though. Most of the engineers I've spoken to have said they'll struggle to do 48 hours in a week so it's not just me being lazy. It'll equate to doing 3 heating systems a week, not an easy job when you've got an incredibly high standard of work to maintain.

 

[Cyanide]

So basically they are wanting you to work quicker?

Does it really take 8.62 hours to fit a boiler? I have seen it done quicker.

Not when that time includes ripping out an airing cupboard, removing the old boiler, fitting the new boiler, piping everything up and fully testing everything.

I did 18 hours worth in the last 2 days and it took me... 18 hours to do it. I couldn't have worked any quicker if I'd have tried, I never take breaks and I'll often work beyond planned working hours so I don't get how they expect me to do any more.