Info-graphic of typical council works hierarchy.

[henpecked]

Probably been on before but about right....

[Tony McC]

...excpet too many council gangs are no longer directly employed by the council: they have to be out-sourced to one of the usual suspects (Carillion, Serco, G4S, etc.), so we need a council liaison office in the photie.

I've still not worked out how it's cheaper to have all the lads on the tools plus all the key line managers working for a private company (who have to make a profit), yet they are all earning the same as they did before being privatised. It stinks of dogma triumphing over practicality.

[henpecked]

Well said Tony.
It used to baffle me how agencies made their money on site too. We'd employ a guy for about £2 over the rate we used to pay on CIS. The agency would fund offices, wages of another guy and keep you staffed. Pure muppetry, if they paid good wages, good blokes wouldn't be hard to find, no need for layer and layers of management. [rantover]

[Carberry]

Give it a year or 2 and that will be a Romanian bloke instead of Polish :laugh:

[Tony McC]

50 years ago, when my family came to Britain, it was the Irish.

The building trade has always relied on imported labour.

[lutonlagerlout]

exactamundo!!
LLL

[ilovesettsonmondays]

Not many polish in the groundwork game in the capital . Romanians and Albanians top the bill down here. We are fighting back though lol another English gang started Monday we are 9- 2 down now

[ilovesettsonmondays]

Does anyone know an Irish tarmacer never come across one down here. Maidstone seems to be the main hub for tarmacers down here

[Tony McC]

Most of the blacktop gangs around here are from Irish families. Admittedly most of them are now 2nd or 3rd generation, but the family names always give it away.

Can't speak for Maidstone - I have a cousin there, but she's a teacher, not a tarmacker!

[ilovesettsonmondays]

Was driving through Barnet today and there she was lol Kilkenny surfacing!!!

[lutonlagerlout]

they all work for volker know round here one way or another
everyone scared shiteless because their every move is being tracked and every gramme of bitmac is accountable
LLL

[Kuts]

I did a bitmac job in Ireland a few years ago, pretty ironic I thought :laugh:

[ilovesettsonmondays]

Our every move is tracked lol. We still go at three at the latest every day

[Tony McC]

....and we thought Orwell's 1984 was a bit far-fetched and unlikely when we read it at school!

Now, you can't nip for a paper or take the family out for a drive without being tracked by various arms of government and a whole army of private agencies. How have we allowed ourselves to be duped into this situation?

Sorry, but the 'if you've done nowt wrong, you've nowt to worry about' is just a paper-thin excuse hiding the slippery slope to totalitarianism.