Poor Agency Rates! (Name & Shame Section!)

[K2]

Lostboy

Too true. I have noticed a number of posters here and an increasing number of guys offshore appear to be incredibly naive. No wonder agencies have a feeding frenzy!

🙄

[Roy Simson]

Like lambs to the slaughter !

Raptor

[timebandit]

AGR still owe me about £5000 pounds. They maintain that if they dont get paid they wont pay me ! It seems their history of non payment is true.

[sedco]

Hey James

This topic has sparked a lot of interest industry wise. It may be an opportune time to start a page where members can report what rate they got for a job with details of agency, position, location etc etc similar to the company rates page that used to run.

Transparancy up the ying yang.

[sedco]

By the way, I would be happy to assist in any way to run above mentioned database. It’s something I could get real anal about. 😀

[Andy Shiers]

EXCELLANT 😀
This could be explosive !

[Paul Bond]

‘Explosive’ and ‘anal’ – two words that shouldn’t be in the same conversation!

[K2]

Reference my earlier post regarding agencies Cc-ing contractors when they invoice their clients for the contractors services, I do believe we are legally entitled to obtain copies under the Data Protection Act 1998.

I have used this successfully on three occasions, it has saved me over £15000 in one case and £100’s in two others. From the date you request copies of data relating to you which is held by a company/ agency they must provide it to you within 30 days otherwise they are breaking the law and opening themselves to legal action which they cannot win.

This would be a nightmare for agencies as not only must they provide a copy of your contract, they must provide you with a copy of all data with references to you on it. Simply put, they must provide a contractor with all copies of past contract invoices too.

Cat, pigeons?! 😆

😉

[Andy Shiers]

Wheat and Chaff 😀

[Subhuman]

Thanks for the info K2.
Come Monday morning the office paper shredders will be getting a work out and hard drives will be wiped clean.
Would not be surprised if they have 2 books they work from the one they show you and the one that is hidden away from the public’s eyes with the real info.

[Ray Shields]

http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/personal_information

[K2]

Good link Ray. I scanned through the Data Protection Act and there are about three circumstance where a body can refuse to provide data but none of these apply in our circumstances.

Regarding charges for provision of data, pay nothing. One of my experiences required two years of paper bank statements, the bank requested £1/sheet so I dropped them a letter with reference to the Data Protection Act and received all statements swiftly with no charge. I have never paid anything to obtain data including one body who I sent monthly requests to. Never been refused data either and all information requested was supplied within 30 days (seems this has changed to 40 days in the link).

The simple solution is to never accept a rate you aren’t happy with. If you are happy then you should have no cause to go digging. If you do wish to obtain a copy of the client invoice try asking the agency, you never know. If you do use the DPA 1998 ask yourself what you will do with your findings bearing in mind you accepted the contract in the first place. Will be interesting to hear if anyone uses this method and also to hear of their findings.

😉

[K2]

Recent offers turned down:

SOS – Client rep £550-600

Orion – ROV supervisor £50k p.a.

Interesting that some agencies seem real keen to offer what they think are good jobs. They are genuinely surprised when these are turned down. Sometimes wonder how much knowledge of the industry they have.

Hasten to add, these are just two jobs, the agencies may have better opportunities but first impressions and all that………

😉

[Roy Simson]

This is the problem they have no idea of what the Rov industry is about , The only thing they know is " Money " They know there is a shortage of experienced Rov personnel and they think its easy money to find what clients need for there projects .But all they seem to be interested in is your day rate.

For the agency’s that may be reading this how on earth can we give you a rate without even knowing even the basic details :- Location , Position , How long , What Vehicle .

I used to think the safe way to work for duff company was via a agency the problem is the agency maybe worse than the company .I know not all agency’s are like this but you only have read the feed back since this topic was started its very clear that the agency’s that seem to flood the market with their requirements are the ones to stay well clear off .

Raptor

[David Appleby]

Hey James

This topic has sparked a lot of interest industry wise. It may be an opportune time to start a page where members can report what rate they got for a job with details of agency, position, location etc etc similar to the company rates page that used to run.

Transparancy up the ying yang.

I hadn’t worked for an Agency for about 5 years. The point I want to make is that Agencies rates were above all others because, if an ROV company needs to go to an Agency, that means they cant find anyone to fill the spot, hence the agency rate was always higher.

Well, that is not the case anymore. AGR took me on 100 USD below the companies standard rate. On communication with the company, found they are paying the Agency the same rate as they would a direct contractor.

There is a host of them, Another was IV offshore, I have never had to send my CV so many times to one company, talk about organised and Select oil and gas, wanted a supervisor, when i quoted 600 STL, they came back and said its long term and the client wants to only pay 400. With that, I responded as expected. GFY

The real question is, which agencies are running off the back of the worker and which, are operating correctly and taking extra from the ROV company.

We are in a supply and demand industry. When the demand is high, the rate should be high.

[Author]

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