3rd March 2012, 02:20 PM
Hi, thanks for the comments and apreciation Dirty Boy.
I totally agree that the issue of notice is hard, but wherever you can give notice you should, and the option of having 'on-call' and 'off-call' periods can work. Some employers expect staff to be able to work away at a days notice, routinely. That means you cannot plan any activity between Monday first thing and 9pm Friday when you may get back from an away job. That has huge knock-ons for personal lives and opportunities to train and learn new skills as the survey results show. A job is a job, and with it will come a certain amount of commuting and disruption, the survey shows Diggers are happy with this, as are the rest of the working population. We aren't and shouldn't be a 'special case', but when it is unreasonable that is different.
Unfortunately many units do NOT pay any work-related travel time, or only pay it for supervisors. The old chestnut of people sleeping in the back whilst you drive is a problem, but if driving is rotated is less so. Of course that depends on people all being able to drive...it shouldn't mean that you don't have to pay travel time though, should it?
Out of interest, do you think a 'compare the units.com' site would be good? The aim being to allow Diggers to compare what is on offer and make a more informed choice.
I totally agree that the issue of notice is hard, but wherever you can give notice you should, and the option of having 'on-call' and 'off-call' periods can work. Some employers expect staff to be able to work away at a days notice, routinely. That means you cannot plan any activity between Monday first thing and 9pm Friday when you may get back from an away job. That has huge knock-ons for personal lives and opportunities to train and learn new skills as the survey results show. A job is a job, and with it will come a certain amount of commuting and disruption, the survey shows Diggers are happy with this, as are the rest of the working population. We aren't and shouldn't be a 'special case', but when it is unreasonable that is different.
Unfortunately many units do NOT pay any work-related travel time, or only pay it for supervisors. The old chestnut of people sleeping in the back whilst you drive is a problem, but if driving is rotated is less so. Of course that depends on people all being able to drive...it shouldn't mean that you don't have to pay travel time though, should it?
Out of interest, do you think a 'compare the units.com' site would be good? The aim being to allow Diggers to compare what is on offer and make a more informed choice.