Poor Agency Rates! (Name & Shame Section!)

[timebandit]

I want to Name and shame AGR ….
After complaining about health and safety issues on the milas barge in Turkey I found myself run off and dumped in Turkey by Alam subsea and AGR, neither were willing to pay me or even pay for my flights home. AGR and Alam owe me about £5000 in wages and expenses. Eventually AGR agreed to fly me home and offered to put me on another job however I am still owed money and it looks like I am going to have to take legal action to recover My money.
Be careful with these guys it looks like they have a history of non payment !!

[Roy Simson]

As we all know by now ISS in Singapore have been looking for a Comanche Supervisor .Some agency’s have been offering as high as $900 so direct I would think you might get $950 – $1000 USD .

Then I had a email from http://www.ersg.co.uk with the offer of $600 USD Wow that’s some difference in rates .

Raptor

[Subhuman]

Over the years the Day rate has fallen between staff and Agency guys. There was a time when Agency earned more as we were the last out and first in over the working season. We have to pay for are survival, medicals [ some of them] and what ever new certs that come up in the regions we work in. We have no pension plans or medical benefits or in some cases holiday pay.
Now it seems to be the norm to work for less or on par with the staff!
I enjoy taking time off when I want it but I might have to give that up now. Need to renew my survival cert. 😥

[K2]

My contact updated me with the laughable news regarding Atlas putting PTs on a job for £100/d less than other agencies.

Previously they claimed they didn’t know what rate was good as this was the only guy on the job 😕

Now they have come back and said tough luck, you agreed your contract. But they have agreed to pay for this guys cigarettes whilst he is offshore. 😯

Well, thats just made my list of agencies to avoid a little longer! As for the PT accepting this drivel…… is it any wonder agencies blatantly rip guys off 🙄

🙄

[deepseacon]

K2 So care to explain what the other agencies are paying ?

That would give more factual information regarding Atlas Recruitment.

[K2]

Deepseacon

Not sure how you think stating a figure is relevant? We simply have one PT from Atlas and other PTs from other agencies. Atlas are paying their guy far less. We expect slight differences between agencies but £100/d?

Where would you rather work?

😉

[deepseacon]

Well Atlas Recruitment were paying 700 GBP a day last year on Norwegian contract Taxed.

But another Agency was paying 795 GBP and my understanding another one 740 GBP.

To me there is a difference if the total is 400 GBP and he is on PT1 rate of 300 GBP.

But is 700 GBP a day wrong to accept? as there is plenty working in Norway on Plus 10%.

So on about 440 GBP.

All rates are for PT1.

[K2]

Deepseacon

I don’t understand what you are on about? The PTs could be on £700 and £800 and subject to Norwegian tax or £300 and £400 and not subject to tax. There is still a difference of £100 between two different agencies.

What is acceptable is up to the individual. If you think £440 is a good PT rate that’s up to you. If you are happy to work alongside a colleague who is being paid more than you for doing the same work then fine.

We clearly operate in different client circles as £440 is very low to me. With people accepting such low rates agencies and companies will be reluctant to give improved rates out keeping rates suppressed.

Also, I am not prepared to work alongside someone who is being paid more for the same job. Thankfully this has never happened but I have witnessed this situation many times and it causes a lot of discontent.

😕

[liddelljohn]

I am receiving feedback when in communication with some agencies and it appears they are avid readers of this forum and this thread has sparked much interest ,,, some are telling me that rates will have to rise and that more transparency will be in order from them ,,,it seems to have generated some concern among agencies which is no bad thing for ROV guys ..but we have to drive this forward with our negotiations when dealing with agencies . Dont accept crap rates or poor service .

[K2]

Agencies may well be interested. They are probably addressing these issues by thinking up new excuses and other ways of exploiting contractors. They have no interest in anything other than getting someone offshore to earn money for them. Of course, they will claim different but you only have to listen to conversations offshore to understand what is going on. Don’t be fooled by their charm, they have one goal – taking as much money from you as they can without you complaining.

Rates rising will depend on the agency taking a proactive approach with clients and by also only taking their commission. Neither of which are apparent these days.

Ref transparency, A colleague recently complained to his agency as he was always sent out on what he thought was a good rate to discover other guys from the same agency were being paid more. The agency claimed several times to only be taking their 15% commission but what they didn’t realise is that my colleague had been accidentally Cc’d on their invoice to their client which showed they were taking 55% of his charge out rate, that is 40% of a loyal workers money above their stated commission. We will never know what goes on unless an agency is prepared to Cc us on invoices to their clients.

Crap rates and poor service? Perfect example between Deepseacon and myself here – with no standard, what constitutes good rates and service will be down to an individual’s point of view. Someone will always take low rates and poor service too, especially dross who cannot make it with bigger, wiser clients.

Personally, I don’t see things changing here so avoid agencies or chose wisely which usually results in me using non UK agencies which are a real breath of fresh air.

😕

[Roy Simson]

Spot on K2 , Go Direct if you can but like we have both said don’t believe any thing they say its there job to get you offshore and earning them money and they will tell you any thing , Because once your offshore your screwed if you walk off or down tools as a few have done in the past your end up with nothing plus having to pay your own flights back .

So in the end as projects requirements arise make them public that way people can go direct if them wish .As for thinking going via a agency gives you protection its very clear that may not be the case after reading many of the topics on this forum .

Going via a agency means your working for them and not for the company so should there be a problem you should get paid .Its up to the agency to get there money out of the company but its clear that is not the case .

But I think the main word is more transparency but that’s never going to happen .

Raptor

[ANCHORMAN]

Ok I have come on a job though ATLAS to find out I am on £70.00 a day less than the other subeng through a different Agent. Tried but failed to increase my rate. Will see the job out but next time ask the higher rate. What else can I do? I do not walk off jobs. Cant prove I am being taken for a mug. Even if I am. But Agents should have to prove to the contractor the rate they are getting from the Client. 10% mark up is a fair take for an Agent if they have nothing to hide and are honest what’s the problem with letting he contractor see they are getting a fair deal. The first agent to adopt this Idea will need to take on a lot of extra office staff because I and others would come flooding to you. The word would spread like wiled fire and any agent that did not copy this business model would soon be out of the game.

[ANCHORMAN]

AGR messed up my last wages. Blamed a lot on PAYCO pay company and it took nearly 7 weeks after getting home to finally get it sorted. I have since heard this has happened a lot in the past. They will loos a lot of guys if they don’t start to get their act together. I did get every penny owed but only because I never stopped pestering them. After all it was my money.

[K2]

Anchorman

My source claimed you were on £100 less than another PT?

What else can you do? You can inform Atlas that after making £xxxx over and above their commission from cheating you that it will be your last trip for them. If it is £100/d then over a 200 day year you are being ripped off to the tune of £20000. Remember, there are 1000’s of agencies to chose from.

Can’t prove you are being taken for a mug? If your colleagues are happy to tell you their rate then they should be happy to show you their contract. 🙄

Cc invoices is the way to go. I imagine agencies already creating copy templates to fool contractors while the real ones go to the client. There will always be some poor excuse or get-around to enable them to continue exploiting contractors.

[Andy Shiers]

Not experienced contractors though 😀

[Author]

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