building control matter: ceiling removal?

[RobertL]

Very helpful replies all, thank you.

I do want to bring it up to modern thermal standards. That had always been my intention.

Robert

[<me9]

Having the odd??? relatives who have worked in such establishments they're no more immune than any other organisation.

[Woodworm]

Essential car user allowance - whatever time-off that you require for those little trips to the dentist, shopping etc and still get paid, the odd 'sneaking' home early for a long lunch, flexible working time that is usually 'fiddled' to get around the core working time, upto 40 days annual leave (including statutory holidays), telephone allowance (both fixed line and mobile phone) -- shall I go on?

A company car that is taxed to the limit, LA's supply laptops and not all companies provide health insurance etc.

Ditto with other departments having to take the dross of the BC department - especially when they c*ck-up.

The BC dept may 'downsize' but seldom if ever make 'redundancies' - they may dress up early retirements as redundancies so that staff can be given the cash on top of their Superannuated pension lump sum...

But your departmental budgets are rarely 'ring-fenced' and I've yet to meet a deparmental Chief Officer that isn't expert at creative budget control...

I have yet to work in a LA that has actually had to enforce compulsory redundancies - even during the the Thatcher years when the works were compulsory tendered for - and contracts lost and the employees transferred under TUPE.

Now that's different to redundancy - and how many leave for another job within the private sector? Not many, they either go to a different LA or Housing Association, reach retirement age - or take early retirement - and depending on years and final salary, pick up a reasonably sized lump-sum and superannuated pension.

Woodworm

[Tony Bryer]

Well I am a former BCO and Hugo tells it more like I remember it. We certainly didn't sneak home for long lunches: more like sandwiches at the desk with interruptions to answer queries. Unpaid overtime to keep the show running. Annual Christmas dinner paid for ourselves out of after-tax money and then no more than 2-3 hours and back to work unlike the afternoon shutdown in many companies. Most of us had more than a few tech books, codes etc bought out of our own money. Yes, you could do OK out of essential car allowance, but choose the right company car and you do even better (as I did with my Honda Jazzs back in the UK).

The real giveaway (it may have changed) was that whenever a job was advertised there were rarely enough people to make a decent shortlist, unlike corresponding jobs in planning that would draw in dozens of applications.

[Hugo Nebula]

On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:51:10 -0000, a certain chimpanzee, "Woodworm" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

...of £70/month (before tax) and 36.9p/mile which is meant to amount to the total cost of running a car. It will just about cover the marginal cost of a car, but if you have to run a car _because_ of your job (ie, a second car that you wouldn't normally), then it nowhere comes near covering the costs.

...None of which is written into any contract, and if one is caught, could land you with disciplinary action. Are you saying such things never happen in the private sector?

Not sure what you mean by this one. Flexitime benefits the employers just as much as the employees. It reduces sick leave or 'special leave' and enables the offices to be open longer as there's usually someone working early or late. Where I work now uses clock cards, so 'fiddling' can't happen (and of course, 'presenteeism' in the private sector means that everybody is working flat out for twelve hours a day).

Why not count weekends too? 'Upto'; is that the same as my 'upto 8Mb broadband' (ie, less than half that)?

Where do I get these? I have a mobile phone from work (a very basic clapped out model) as my job means builders and colleagues need to contact me when I'm out on site. Any private phone calls or texts I make I have to pay for.

Please do.

[Tony Bryer]

Sadly that may be the fault of the union. We had a big dispute over car allowances in my BCO days and withdrew the use of our cars. An interim offer was made that I considered fair, so I wrote to the head of personnel saying that I would be prepared to accept this and if the final offer was more they could continue to pay me just this. Of course I knew this wouldn't happen, but I wasn't prepared for what happened next:

A week later we were called together and told that a 'better' offer had been made. All my colleagues looked at me accusingly. A quick bit of mental arithmetic confirmed that the new deal was to the benefit of casual users (the majority) and for those of us on essential allowances it was lower than the 'offer' I had accepted.

After that I didn't have a lot of time for NALGO (as was then)

[Hugo Nebula]

On Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:17:06 +1100, a certain chimpanzee, Tony Bryer randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

I remember that dispute. The Council I was with hired a fleet of hire cars. I never knew that a 1.3 Fiesta could go so fast in second gear.