Is this right (ethical) or just a good idea

[Deleted member 1779]

One of my tilers (wont say his name) Charges customers a flat £270 a day labour for jobs and pays a guy from Poland £80 a day to work with him as his side kick.

He tells the customers that by paying £270 a day then they get the job done in half the time so it saves them money but also they get his expertise. He tells them he is clean, fast, accurate and they pay only when the job is finished.

So far so good...

He is non-stop busy. But what he does is get the labourer to do most of the work mainly ripping up old tiles, prep, room building and doing the graft.

Then while the labourer is on the job doing most of the manual stuff he spends half of each day drumming up more work by doing his quotation work and a bit of door knocking. At each job he parks his van and hangs out a swinging sign.

He recons that half his job is really PR and getting more work. Most clients dont seem to mind that he is not on site doing the actual work - so why worry?

But is that just smart or is it a bit cheeky. He has even used two labourers on different jobs and shot back and fourth to do a bit of work.

What he likes to do is mark the tiles. Then gets the labourer to go off and cut them and bring them to him. And he sticks them on the wall while the labourer is off cutting the next tile. At the end of the day the labourer clears up and he sorts out things with the customer. And he runs two jobs a day!

 

[howard]

i think he is a very good business man if he can get people to do all the work for him so cheap thats great

 

[Perry]

and much would that work out a square meter ? ete

 

[grumpygrouter]

I have to say that if the quality is not suffering, and he has happy customers it is the right thing to do.

He is paying his guys way above the NMW and they seem to be doing the job he pays them for.

Good luck to him.

 

[Grace'sDad]

Damn good idea and ethical too. As long as he's honest with the customers. Any dodgy work though and he won't last long.

 

[TilingLogistics]

Sounds like a man after my own heart! Good luck to him as long as he maintains standards

Kev

 

[brian c]

lucky get getting all the jobs..lol

 

[CLAYS TILES]

Q. wot do you think about how your m8 ? do you approve or disapprove?

 

[Deleted member 1779]

Well I booked him in to do MY bathroom and assumed he would be the one doing the work.

But it turned out to be 90% of the polish guy.

And every now and then a star turn appearance of the main man. At the time I thought "Bloody Cheek". He dips in and out.

But after the job was done I thought - OK maybe he has a point. He runs his company and my job is good.

 

[tiler burden]

if eastern europeans want to come to england and under sell and devalue their skills then you tiler friend has every right to capitalise!!

if they do the donkey work and he comes in with the skill and the quality and timing of the job is 1st class then good on him.

i never look at what somebody charges a day as the defining issue, i am more interested in the quality and the quantity that they get done for their day rate.

i mean, if you have just come fresh off a tiling course and are charging £300 a day because thats what you have been informed but your tiling is say, average and your covering say 7 meters a day then i think you are a rip off merchant because theres and industry full of time served tilers who can do more for less.

good on your friend for making the most of the situation, make hey while the sun still shines....maybe europe should insist that immigrant workers should charge the going rate of the country they work in. as a common decency and fair way of keeping everything on a reasonable level. that way there would be no issues..

 

[brian c]

well as long as you are happy richard.