corrour station

[Wildfisher]

?5.80 / hour is poor pay indeed

It makes you think though.

What about  a self employed fly tier?

Let's say on average, depending on pattern complexity, he can tie 6 flies / hour.

Some people mump and moan when asked to pay ?1 for a fly  (but of course are more than happy to pay  20 quid for a hangover).

Not really a living wage  in that game either is there?  Especially after you deduct material  costs - Partridge Klink hooks alone cost about 15 pence each. Fly tying is just one example, making a living outwith a "normal"  job is pretty hard going in these days of cheap globally warmed, high carbon, dirty coal fired Chinese / far eastern sweatshop imports.

[Inchlaggan]

They have got to be having a joke with the conditions of work. ?5.80 an hour live in but they will levy a charge for utility costs, change the number of hours you work at a whim, have computing skills, food hygiene and cover at short notice. You would need to be desperate to take that on for that salary.

They aint joking. That is about standard terms for remote Highland hotels. An ad like that on Gumtree will attract 20-40 applications.
Few from the UK however. Those that do take the job will be pretty happy with the terms, and not understand why only 40 hours of work is offered.

[Wildfisher]

They aint joking. That is about standard terms for remote Highland hotels. An ad like that on Gumtree will attract 20-40 applications.
Few from the UK however. Those that do take the job will be pretty happy with the terms, and not understand why only 40 hours of work is offered.

And just think what the rate might have been had the Tories been elected in 1997. The were aggressively  against any form of minimum wage and no doubt still are. When they win the UK election next month  the real value of the pittance on offer now will doubtlessly  be eroded over time under the banner of "austerity measures" to the extent it becomes  meaningless.

[paulr]

I was speaking to an old boy going up a ski tow at Cairngorm last month.I mentioned that the staff all seemed to be english or foreign.He was telling me that back in the day it was all locals who worked there but now the pay was so bad that very few local people were prepared to work there anymore.

cheers

Paul

[corsican dave]

paul,

i can assure you that one of the biggest problems around here (aviemore) is that there are a few fat cats getting fatter (witness the macdonald hotel scandal and their SNP cronies) and pretty much full employment. therefore jobs are at such a premium that all employers can get away with paying minimum and not rewarding excellence. they know as soon as someone leaves they'll have half a dozen people wanting work. they also "know" that the tourists will continue to come and spend money, regardless of how they're treated. to be fair, the vast majority of the staff on the ground here are excellent. trouble is they can't afford to stay.

so many of the well qualified and enthusiastic locals are moving away in search of "decent" jobs elsewhere. those that do stick around can't afford decent housing as all the houses are bought up by holiday home owners and prices are sky-high. you'd never get a mortgage.

"development" continues at  a terrifying pace her, despite national park status. there are no more jobs being created, so who wants the housing?

we've lived in our house since it was built 5 years ago. we've never had "real" neighbours and i reckon we're the only owner occupiers in our row of around 20 houses.

i lived in braemar ten years ago and the situation was, if anything, worse. i believe this pattern is being repeated throughout the highlands.

just as an example, my last pay rise (to 50p an hour over minimum, for managing a shop with over ?500k turnover) was nearly 3 years ago. prior to that it had remained static for 3 years. when i had the temerity to ask for another, over a year ago (since the shop had increased its turnover by nearly 12%) i was told that the last pay rise was an advance against my good performance for the coming year!!!

it's a good thing i will soon be able to return to instructing and some seasonal rope access work.

sorry the rant's a little off subject, but were i single with no ties, i'd probably consider the corrour job!!

ps in case you're wondering how i'm writing this right now, i'm on a day off and just finished clearing some snow (which the local council refuses to do). if my surgeon could've seen me....

pps rant over (for now! :lol:)

[paulr]

Sorry Dave,
I don't know anything about the area, was just passing on a comment the old guy had made to me.
I might be back up that way soon judging by the amount of new snow Cairngorm has received!

cheers
Paul

[corsican dave]

no worries, paul!

your comments were bang on! i just needed to let off some steam, that's all :

drop in to nevisport and say "hi!" if you're passing. give it a couple more days and we'll maybe have some fishing again :shock: :lol:

[paulr]

I certainly will if I'm passing thanks Dave. We can go to mambo's for a pint  :wink:
cheers
Paul