Agent posting low rates

[Brendan]

The gas thing is you all seem to be talking about different situations, and comparing things you can’t really compare on a forum like this.

Subman you keep referring to your situation when you had to call an I.T guy in from the yellow pages, which I don’t think is in any way comparable to offshore work (I assume).
You are the person offering work, relatively quick work at that. The guy that arrives at your door is either an employee of the company or the owner of that I.T company, if its an employee you can be sure that he is getting no where near that hourly rate if thats what the company charge him out at,if he broke 20 p/h himself I would be surprised. If its a one man show and the owner himself turns up thats different he has picked himself up a quick private job that is sure to pay up without any hassle. Happy days for him!
But on the other hand how much work does this guy pick up through the yellow pages and how much does he pick up through subbing in to larger I.T companies.
I have mates (sparkies)who sub into bigger electrical companies, getting steady work but regularly have to wait three months to get paid for a contract, not a good thing when you need to put diesel in the van. When your subbing into another company(onshore contractor) the risks you take of getting stung financially seriously increase. Imagine doing one months work,waiting three months to get paid and then been told by the main contractor sorry lads we can’t afford to trade anymore. You probably do get this offshore but outside of the paying for insurances/accountants fee’s/safety training how much would you take out of your wallet while you were offshore on a day to day basis then compare this to an onshore contractor! Who to top it all off has to go home to the missis at the end of the day!
Personally as a sparks in Dublin working for a very small electrical company I get paid 22 euro p/h for up to 38 hours p/w. With the the added "benefits" of putting in typically 70 euro p/w of diesel into my personal van, maintaining said van, frequency of payment all over the shop and doing anything up to an extra ten hours p/w for nothing and been told I should be just glad the work is there in the first case.

All because of the basic economic laws of supply and demand!!

As for this been home in the evening crack, fare enough some people are lucky enough to work local but the majority of people commute. I leave my house at 6.45 in the morning and if I do a straight 8 hour day I might be home for 6.30. Thats basically a twelve hour day, throw in the gym/hobbies for two/three evenings a week and your quality of time at home aint worth a wank.

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

I am not saying that working offshore is perfect either, I am not that naive, just reading what you were implying was very hard to swallow.

Rant over.

Brendan

[James McLauchlan]

No matter what the ethics of the low rate may be or the merits of the ensuing discussion… it doesn’t detract from the fact the a rate is well below industry norms, is not acceptible and cannot be justified by comparing it with any other vocation…. super market managers, IT guys or otherwise.

People may try to compare the rate with other (non offshore industry related) jobs but, at the end of the day I feel the rate should only be compared with similar positions in the ROV industry.

Slap down comments such as ‘get back on the winch‘ are of no help either and only tend to be unnecessarily antagonistic and indicative of the limited input the poster may be able to contribute to a discussion.

[subman]

As I write this reply the price of oil is now at 92 $ a barrel a high for 2 years but the rates for rov personnel seems to be going lower and lower I would love to know why ?

As for trades man vs Rov at the end of the day when we are at the supermarket paying the bill or filling your car up with petrol it dont matter what your work is only the amount you earn , What I am saying is why bother going offshore when you can earn a good rate onshore and being home every night .

Cheers

Subman

[tc1]

Subman

As I write this reply the price of oil is now at 92 $ a barrel a high for 2 years but the rates for rov personnel seems to be going lower and lower I would love to know why ?

Rates:
We all see how the rates have dropped over the last two or three years.
The problem with this is the fact that a few shrewed bean counters within a few unscrupulous companies realised that they could get away with winning contracts by coersing people to work for less thereby reducing their overall bid on contracts.

As a result of a few,other companies albeit they may be bone fide,had no choice but to compete or die.

We are now in the situation that,even though oil companies are making vast profits, due to the price of oil,the bid rates are still low and competitive.

I am positive that the bone fide companies wish to get the rates back to where they were,however until there is a glut of work,and are able to win contracts with higher rates,they are unable to offer the rate we deserve.

I dont foresee the rates reversing their downward trend quickly without some say and pressure from the people who make their contract work.

I dont wish to be doom and gloom here but until the people who make these contracts work exert some say in whats going on then we will continue to have low rates.

Remember that agencies too are struggling to make money as the work declines and its no surprise that they increase their percentage to try and maintain their income.

It is the case right now that if you want a bigger rate then you must work direct and avoid losing a big percentage to the agencies.

The agencies will not enjoy us working direct but,Im sorry to any agency reps reading this.We must look after ourselves here ,and if you struggle to survive, then dont blame us,because we are fighting for our survival too.

[SmallWorld]

Subman

There is no dispute that the offered rates are way to low, but if someone decides to take the job for a crapy rate I guess that’s their buisness and good luck to them.

I’m a little supprised you called out an IT guy & paid him top dollar. IT knowledge and abillity should be part of your skill set as an ROV type, shouldn’t it ?

Remember though, no one who works offshore is being coerced , press ganged or other wise forced to work offshore, it’s personal choice. The bottom line is if tyou think you can work onshore & earn a similar $$ then go ahead and do that. There’s nothing worse than working offshore and having to listen to constant moaning about rates , conditions from a fellow ROV crew member. Having said that it’s always the same old same old that do all the bit$ching and bringing evreyone else down! No doubt they would do the same in any vocation shoreside or offshore.As for the price of oil it goes up & down. In general from my experience day rates just go up & thankfully are not fixed to the $ cost of a barrel of oil otherwise the past 2 years everyones wages would have gone down

As

[subman]

Small world

Thanks for the input yes we all have bills to pay and some may accept the low rates its clear from your original message " If you could see my Salary it would make your eyes weep "
I wonder why you accepted the job ? " You accepted it because you had to survive like us all .

As for paying out £35 a hour a IT man its not only IT men who charge that amount ,As for doing the job myself yes if I want to waste 2 or 3 days sorting out my computer however I want to use it " NOW " So I called out a professional in the same way companys call us out .

So if any body would like the contact details for Horizon Survey please PM me .
Its funny we had this same topic last year but 2011 might be better we will all have to wait and see .
But 2011 will see the price of oil over 100$ a barrel I would love to hear from other offshore trades and hear what there being paid because someone is making a stack of money its not us then " WHO "

Cheers

Subman

[Craig Thorngren]

I would love to hear from other offshore trades and hear what there being paid because someone is making a stack of money its not us then " WHO "

Cheers

Subman

That’s an easy one, it is those who take the most risk with their own money who get the biggest return (as it should be). Why it’s the investors! Want the big bucks? Risk your own hard earned money and if you invest wisely and some government type doesn’t take 50% of your profits in taxes, you too can reap the benefits of $100bbl oil…

Chief

[me]

I can tell it’s not always the body shop making the big money, i was sent a mail, very big mistake i got the mail, the mail stated that they would only pay that much for a Supervisor and Sub Engineer, and that rate was pretty low, but the body shop had 16 people who would work for that day rate, body shop was charging the company between 10 and 15%
I think it took them a few days to realise that i was in on the mails, so of cause there is many people ready to work for less rate today, i have not heard any company screaming for people and say we cant get people

[Author]

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