Foreign Workers

I am having my kitchen upgraded , by a large company, one set of men removed the cupboards,then came the Electrician,and the Plumber and Plasterer, The workmen so far have all been efficient very polite and considerate .I cannot fault their work or their manner,yet not one were English ,although they all spoke it. I have been told that there is a shortage of skilled British workers

Re: Foreign Workers

Yes, I can believe it.
Trying to get someone to build fitted wardrobes and getting a quote is such a faff - if I could find a foreign carpenter/joiner I wouldn't hesitate, but where have all our great British workmen gone? They don't seem to want the work even when you manage to find one..

Re: Foreign Workers

I would question their qualifications.
I'm not saying they are inferior but they may not have the required certification...ie electricians and gas fitters.

Re: Foreign Workers

The great British skilled labour/tradespeople lis there, unfortunately the majority of the great British public don't like paying the going rates.

Re: Foreign Workers

My daughter had a huge extension built two years ago as her two boys were getting older and wanted separate bedrooms, four Polish chaps did the work and made a great job of it at a far lower price than the Local lads quoted her, they were very polite and tidy going about their work, she was very pleased, some of her neighbours went in to have a look at it and so far two neighbours have had the same job done. I'm all for local lads getting the work but when you can't afford their quotes what can you do?

Re: Foreign Workers

Hi

I agree about the Qualifications, our electric and gas are very different to many European Regulations.

I can't agree about others though.

Apprenticeships are far more common on the Continent than here, a big mistake we made.

Brickies, chippies, plumbers, plasterers are all very good in my experience.

They are no cheaper, at least not round here, but they do turn up and work hard.

Re: Foreign Workers

Unfortunately this is becoming a big problem for British self employed people.
We cannot compete with the quotes being driven down by cheap labour.

Some of the quotes I've seen cannot possibly be beaten nor can they be legitimate, it's absolutely impossible without running at a loss unless you don't have the required insurance and don't pay tax.

I could cut my wages bill by about 35%+ if I was willing to employ a totally foreign workforce.

Re: Foreign Workers

They often do a better job than their British counterparts!

Re: Foreign Workers

Here, builders get round paying proper Swedish wages by bringing in a crew from Poland. They're payed crappy wages, have to part with possibly 50% of it to the Polish home-base "agentura", sleep either in cramped quarters or in their car, and too often don't come in because the supplies don't always arrive from Poland (cost cutting measures) when they should. The upshot is, the Polish-Swedish entrepreneur fills his pockets with large sums of money while the common Polish worker gets crapped upon.

Re: Foreign Workers

When we had our bathroom done we looked at quotes from various companies and went for a British company with British workers, they did a lovely job were polite, kind and helpful. Only thing differed between them and the polish companies giving quotes was cost. Now call me a fool by all means but I like to know the workers are being paid a reasonable wage and I wasn't convinced the cheaper quotes were going to pay their workers a decent wage.