building work and polish

shyjoe

myself and two of the lads in the last few years have worked in building sites but basically while looking for work with all the big companies and the sites we told"you know urself lads no work we have tons of polish" now i hear they complain about getting less then the rate but if they don't like it go home or get another job.being honest id work for a bit less than the rate because all work seems to be gone to foreigners.what do other ppl in the building game think?? thanks

Doc

In my experiance you are more likely to get the job if its just between you and a polish person generally because your English is better. Are you talking about part time, contract work or full time?

ChityWest

I think they will hire whoever they can get away with paying less money to.

dmck2886

ChityWest wrote:

I think they will hire whoever they can get away with paying less money to.

Of course they will, most developers are tight when it comes to money.

blu_sonic

kinda like what we were like in england 50 years ago

nuttz

shyjoe wrote:

what do other ppl in the building game think?? thanks

I'm not in the building game, (far from it), but it sounds like (on a weekly basis) that the whole construction industry is going to slow down (big time) in the next year or so. Bearing that in mind, it might be an idea to specialise, or move out of construction.

Of course they will, most developers are tight when it comes to money.

Any of the construction workers that I know personally seem to be doing quite well for themselves at the moment. I daresay their wages are quite high in comparison to 5 or 6 years ago.

But I agree developers are quite tight-fisted with money....

Civilian_Target

Yep - property developers didn't become the richest men in Ireland by paying a decent wage, or by selling cheap houses!

Lets face it, Irish builders don't really have a reputation for having the same work ethic as the Poles - your local county council is probably mostly Irish builders, and they're reputed for drinking a lot of tea, not for their hard work!

Sleepy

So they come over here work harder than the Irish for less money and you now feel agrieved that they're getting work easier?

Just why should we feel sorry for ya exactly?

Iago

There's no shortage of work in the building trade for anybody who wants it, with the exception maybe of unskilled labour. In that case it's not the developers but the contractors to blame.

Contractors are paid the same regardless of who's working for them, so if they can increase their profit by paying someone less to do a job then they will. This is not a new thing, now it's foreign workers, 10 years ago it was 16-19 year olds who were happy to take £40 a day and sign-on for their dole, instead of the £60-£70 + tax paid that more experienced labourers would demand. If you're a tradesman then you will find work whereever you go, and you'll be well paid for it. Both developers and contractors are perfectly happy to pay top rate to good tradesmen as the work is too important to penny pinch on (it costs far more to have to go in and fix things than it does to pay for them to be done right in the first place)

personally I think Irish people are far too quick to blame others for their lack of drive or work ethic, "ah sure if it wasn't for (insert ethnic minority here) I'd be flat out working every day" when the reality is that if they really wanted the job they would have one by now.

There are plenty of jobs in Ireland, the Irish just don't want to lower themselves to doing them, if I had to sweep the streets I'd do it to bring an income in. Far too many people think they're "too good" for certain professions, and are happy to take a social welfare/dole payment instead and blame it on the influx of foreign workers. This influx has certainly had an influence, now we have people who are willing to work hard, who don't complain about having too work late or extra days, who just get on with their job and go home at night without causing problems or slacking off.

If anybody wants to come to this country and work for a living and actively contribute to the society as a whole then I say let them all in, they can only improve things.

magpie

Poles work harder for less money, and have a higher standard of education to boot. Only 4% of those coming into the country don't have at least Leaving Cert standard education, as opposed to 40% of the Irish workforce who just about limped past the Junior Cert before leaving school to cash in on the easy money to be made in unskilled labour.

Liver Lips

shyjoe wrote:

what do other ppl in the building game think?? thanks

Are you being ironic?

Iago

Liver Lips wrote:

Are you being ironic?

would you even know if he was?

Liver Lips

Iago wrote:

would you even know if he was?

were do flys go in the winter?

Iago

Liver Lips wrote:

were do flys go in the winter?

what are flys? is it some only recently discovered lifeform?

You made an ignorant inference, so one could assume from that the possibility that you are just generally ignorant and therefore would be unaware of the presence of irony.

I fail to see what the hibernation patterns of insects has to do with the subject at hand.

Wertz

Liver Lips wrote:

were do flys go in the winter?

Inside your skull maybe? You seem to have plenty of vacant space...

stevenmu

shyjoe wrote:

now i hear they complain about getting less then the rate but if they don't like it go home or get another job.

Tbh, I don't think the polish are complaining about the rates. It's the Irish workers and unions complaining because they're being undercut and loosing out on work because of it.

dubtom

magpie wrote:

Poles work harder for less money, and have a higher standard of education to boot. Only 4% of those coming into the country don't have at least Leaving Cert standard education, as opposed to 40% of the Irish workforce who just about limped past the Junior Cert before leaving school to cash in on the easy money to be made in unskilled labour.

Unskilled is the key word here, I know of lads who do tapeing and slabbing on sites (as opposed to plastering) not a job an apprenticeship is needed for, pulling 2500K a week, becuase they work hard. That money is available to Irish or polish/rumanian/russian. They work hard, they get paid well. A mate is a contractor and he is interested in people who will do the job well,and he pays well. After all, it's his reputation that suffers if a boyo makes a hames of something.

Liver Lips

Iago wrote:

what are flys? is it some only recently discovered lifeform?

You made an ignorant inference, so one could assume from that the possibility that you are just generally ignorant and therefore would be unaware of the presence of irony.

I fail to see what the hibernation patterns of insects has to do with the subject at hand.

**whhoooo whooooooo***...Stop! its the ignorance police!

brilliant...the ironing is delicious...keep digging

Dyr

I know lads who've gotten out of the building game because their lives were at risk from non nationals who dont have a clue about safe practice and dont speak english.

I have friends who's jobs are becoming impossible because polish guys are filling out manifests, reports etc only in polish, ie fcuk off unless you're one of us.

I dont think its anything to do with being hard working or not, Its irish employers looking for cheap exploitable labour. They're going to reverse any of the improvements that their workforce has gained over the years. Working hours, health care, pensions, holidays can all be avoided by hiring foreign workers who are willing to be exploited for a crap wage packet. The race to bottom has begun.