TEMPING PROS & CONS
Page 44
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• David White and Bill Dobson are truck drivers. They both do the same job for the same NFC company — but there is one big difference: Dobson is a permanent BRS employee, while White is a temporary driver supplied by a local employment agency, Both like their jobs and neither would swap places if they were given the opportunity. David White loves the variety of his job. Bill Dobson values the security of his.
White works for Drivers, an employment agency based in Southampton. He began temping more than two years ago after being made redundant. Unlike most other temps, White works full-time for the agency. This entitles him to additional benefits such as sick pay, which is not offered to many agency workers.
Variety of work is the main benefit of temping work, says White. If you start a permanent job you are never sure what it is going to be like. If you do not like it, you just have to stick at it or chuck it in. With temping, if I do not like a job I can just change it."
White gets paid a basic hourly rate of 2.60. Once he has worked more than 40 hours in a week he gets £5.20 per hour. He works five days a week and for that usually takes home around £150.
However, he knows there are some hard sides to temping. When he turns up at a new company, he is usually given the worst truck in the fleet.
"You often get the biggest work load as well. And if you do not finish with the other drivers, management want to know what you have been doing all day," says White. Some companies also give temping drivers only vague destination details, he adds, and don't explain the paperwork properly.
Despite these drawbacks, White insists he will stick with temping and has turned down offers of permanent posts. Only once has he been told by his agency that there was no work and he reckons that temping is as secure as any other job: "Any driver could be laid off tomorrow."
Bill Dobson has been with BRS for six years. He works a six-day week, and takes home about £180. Security, says Dobson, is the best thing about a permanent post. "Work is always there, so you can plan your life and you know what is coming in. No worries."
Other perks include pension schemes, NFC shares and a uniform "which saves you on jeans and tee-shirts". Dobson is