Rained Off - but not paid.

[craste]

Morning all!

My best mate is a builder who works for a small construction company (Boss and 2 or 3 builders).

my friend is 39 and has a family, two kids and a mortage etc.

Now when its raining my pal gets 'rained off' without pay.

Is this the norm in this industry? my friend wishes to work but cannot due to the weather and is told to go home - without pay.

He has to make up his money by working weekends and therefore misses time with his young children.

Is this the norm as i think this takes the piss?

[jaybirduk]

From an outsiders point of view that sounds acceptable to me, especially if he is hourly paid.

[98elise]

When i had our extension built, this was exactly how the main builder worked. They are effectively hourly paid.

My builder tried to keep 2 or 3 jobs on the go at once, so when it rained, they had internal work to do on other projects.

[roofer]

Yes, it is the norm if he is self employed. We used to get rain money and drying up money in the early 80's on the roofs, but it got kicked into touch.

I manage about 20 different flat roof gangs at any one time and they're all on price. A weeks rain can be painful. In 98 i think it was, there was about 30 days of rain, cost me a fortune.

Edited by roofer on Sunday 18th March 11:43

[craste]

thanks for the responses guys, he is not self employed he works for this small company.

To me if he is willing to work but can't due to somthing outside his control then he should still get at least half a days or somthing.

[craigjm]

If he is employed by the company rather than a self employed contractor he needs to check his contract. If it is a zero hours contract then he is getting what he signed up for.

[stevenr]

I always got my basic 8 hours if we were rained off,that was large companies though.

Being self employed now it's up to the agent on site,the last guy was pretty good when it came to that sort of stuff.

[Buffalo]

When I worked construction, it was rained off WITH pay - I'd check, because I should imagine the company is still making something.

[Deva Link]

What is this "rain" that you speak of?

[crofty1984]

Whilst it's obviously a pisser for him, I can't see the person having the work done being very happy about it.
"That job'll cost £10,000"
"OK do it"
"That'll be £10,500 please - It was raining on Thursday and Friday."

[blindswelledrat]

Buffalo said:

- I'd check, because I should imagine the company is still making something.

Why?
If you contracted a builder to build a garden wall and it rained for a week so he couldn't do it, would you be expecting to pay him?

[Mattt]

crofty1984 said:

Whilst it's obviously a pisser for him, I can't see the person having the work done being very happy about it.
"That job'll cost £10,000"
"OK do it"
"That'll be £10,500 please - It was raining on Thursday and Friday."

It does and can happen - not on this small scale, but in large projects the weather is the subject of many legal battles (for both EoT/penalties & overhead costs).