Contractors

[Cabletvman]

Thats how it should be,

THanks for the feedback

[Tcomms]

Cabletvman,

if u click on this link it shouldhelp ;

http://www.kelly.co.uk/careers/view-roles

or you cud email penny.davies@kelly.co.uk

hope this helps?

Tcomms

[Cabletvman]

Thanks you very much

I will let you know how I get on

[petch 7697]

if you really think fujitsu are no different to map then you are blinder than a bat with shades on and as for your kellys bt contract history shows they dont last long. i know where id rather be and it starts with an f

[Nedkelly]

All i can say its early days lets see whats its like in a couple of months .But when you think about it Fujitsu are a corprate company not like map where it is owend by 1 person and in it to make as much money as they can I have heared good and bad thinks about Map Kellys and fujitsu and have friends who work for both .Those that have gone to the BT contract have a long drive because there is no BT work in this area .

[WooLLsterQ]

The point people are missing is how different the working conditions are on the BT contract, and that can not slip into a "kelly's" way like the VM contract because they are very heavily monitored/audited by BT.
Once you are accredited to work on the BT network you can move to other contractors, M J Quinns, Carillion and Hays to name a few all work in the same manner. There is no comparison between the two really.
I have been on the contract now since early March, and was one of the first batch of engineers taken on. First month I received £24k prorata (£2000 gross) and since then I have been hitting targets evry month for £28K.
It's the little things like NBI's, on VM you manager would make you go back no matter what time it was to complete these, not on BT. If they are not in and your in your time slot they get billed and have to reorder, no going back to it.
There is a massive sense of team work/ethic if someone is struggling on a big job you just jump on with them so you all finish early.

[Cabletvman]

I have heard this also from friends that have gone over to the Kelly BT contract. They are all very happy and feel well paid and part of something very professional. I have arranged an interview for the back end of this week through the contacts that Tcomms posted above,



http://www.kelly.co.uk/careers/view-roles

or you cud email penny.davies@kelly.co.uk

THere are about 10 guys working with me that are no longer happy with the Fuji lies. I was not able to arrange interviews for them as i was told they all have to organise their own individually by responding to a specific advert or kelly's web site.

[Tcomms]

Ned Kelly hit the nail on the head - one operator cares about the field guys, the other one doesnt. Nobody cared about me apart from Kelly until I wanted to leave catv land and ENJOY life elsewhere!

[Cabletvman]

Everyone is on these forums saying

Kellys are crap
Map are crap
Fujitsu are crap
McNics are crap


!!!!!!

There is a common denominator that no one is mentioning! (nor am I going to name them)

However, when it suits, they are happy to force the contractors to work 6 even 7 days per week, happy to turn a blind eye to us completing 7 or 8 even 9 jobs per day. It is impossible to complete 8 jobs per day properly!, happy to turn a blind eye to contractors staff working on their network without any training, and to watch thier contractors pay minimum wage, happy to turn a blind eye to us guys working and driving 60+ hours per week, because there are too many jobs and not enough techs

ALSO HAPPY TO TELL THEIR CONTRATORS THAT THEY ARE CRAP when it all goes wrong

[JayJay]

I think we all can agree we all (contractors that is, I cant vouch for in house) work in some real crappy conditions. As you say Cabletvman, It is impossible to complete 8 jobs per day properly - if they want the red button doing, bbi activations, pit guards, gas testings, cab cleaning, spending that valuable time with the customer and more done correctly, you are realistically looking at 5/6 jobs per day. We all cut corners else we will be home at god knows what time.

You are right though, there is a common denominator that we are forgetting to mention, but it costs money to enforce these conditions onto contracting partners, money they clearly dont want to spend yet happy to ram in as many installs as possible. BT on the other hand have it perfect, as mentioned in this thread, NBI's - I hate them, I've precalled you - you dont answer, I knock on your door - you dont answer. Manager tries - No answer. But he will keep on trying! That REALLY annoys me. All for his stats.

I dont know if there is any techs that attend the Crawley yard at all but a couple of weeks ago you may remember alot of traveling techs downed tools in protest of traveling nearly 1 hour to EACH, yes, EACH job everytime and working until 10pm most nights. Nothing got done about it, but it certainly got higher managements attention.

As I keep getting told, this is the way things have always been and they will never change. Shame really as its a great industry to be in, I really do enjoy it, but even I am starting to get fed up of it and thinking about hanging up my cable strippers and compressor to go look for something away from this. Such a shame

[beller]

Originally Posted by Cabletvman

Everyone is on these forums saying

Kellys are crap
Map are crap
Fujitsu are crap
McNics are crap


!!!!!!

There is a common denominator that no one is mentioning! (nor am I going to name them)

However, when it suits, they are happy to force the contractors to work 6 even 7 days per week, happy to turn a blind eye to us completing 7 or 8 even 9 jobs per day. It is impossible to complete 8 jobs per day properly!, happy to turn a blind eye to contractors staff working on their network without any training, and to watch thier contractors pay minimum wage, happy to turn a blind eye to us guys working and driving 60+ hours per week, because there are too many jobs and not enough techs

I was working for Avonline for 4 years up until December last and I can tell ya it was exactly the same. It will never change its the industry.
Virgin + contract company = underpaid & overworked (is my experience and many others)

The only time they are interested in you is when your month figures are poor and up until that point they don't care if you finish at 7/8 near every night.

My advice look for a new career, my social life and regular weekly activities were virtually nil, even worse if you have a wife and family.
When I left it was a massive weight off my shoulders and my life.

[JayJay]

Im also an ex avonline now McNic, Beller - Still have to go up to Bristol and help out . I felt sorry for you guys, you was basically a hub for engineers to cover every where! Dont blame you for getting out.

[Nedkelly]

A long long time ago when i was a contractor we got paid more than in house those days were great .Then if you were offerd a job in house you had to think can i afford the pay drop .Then the companys changed so did the pay then it became inhouse made more money and contractors slogged there guts out for a decent wage .These were the days where all jobs were full jobs there was no 1 man crews .VM need to sort this out look at what is going on .stop saying no more than 6 jobs a day but will give out 7 to 8 to get the figures in .Like i said before its to early to see how Fujisu will evolve lets hope it for the better in this area the contractor has a very low level of staff turn over unlike some areas .

[Tom2270]

U can't blame the contractors. Mcnics and fujitsu try there hardest for the guys. But when they keep the same bully boy managers from Kellys map avonline etc then nothing will change. Tellin u to cut corners and bodge jobs so they all go in. Then tell u Ur crap cuz Ur stats r *****. It is a good job just a shame managers think it's the army.

[beller]

Originally Posted by Tom2270

U can't blame the contractors. Mcnics and fujitsu try there hardest for the guys. But when they keep the same bully boy managers from Kellys map avonline etc then nothing will change. Tellin u to cut corners and bodge jobs so they all go in. Then tell u Ur crap cuz Ur stats r *****. It is a good job just a shame managers think it's the army.

Why not blame the contractor? they are the ones who bid for the contract from Virgin!!
So if they try to undercut the next company or make their bid as competitive as possible its usually the wage or the amount of staff that pays the price for competitiveness, after all the worker is the biggest cost but also their biggest asset (although you would think they forget that bit!)

The only way the industry will change (for the contractors) if there is a engineer strike across the board. As we all know these companies are nothing without the engineers, with no engineers how does the company run?
or.... get yourselves in a union like Virgins employees at least there is someone who cares a little about the welfare of an engineer

---------- Post added at 15:14 ---------- Previous post was at 14:12 ----------

Originally Posted by JayJay

Im also an ex avonline now McNic, Beller - Still have to go up to Bristol and help out . I felt sorry for you guys, you was basically a hub for engineers to cover every where! Dont blame you for getting out.

This was not so bad a while back but due to cost cutting the work force was cut back as well as depots, like north bristol and Cots. Bristol covers a massive area teams having to do over an hour's drive to a different region to do the first job and then have the same amount of jobs as the guys who are less than 5/10/20 minutes from their first. The sensible thing to do you would think is to maybe give less to the guys who had to travel...you would think but of course no. It's pure cost cutting at the engineers expense. I know the cuts were because of company merges but this still goes on and hasn't changed