Why should a working man pay £51 for “permission to work”?
Several years ago, just after my eldest son left full-time education, he went for a job interview with a company that was allied to the plumbing business.
As my son was still quite young and since this was his first formal job interview, I took a keen interest. The advertisement looked kosher; the premises from which the company operated looked smart if functional; and the process up to the interview was handled with the utmost professionalism.
The “interview” went well and my son was offered the job. Well, I say he was offered the job; by which I mean he was offered the “opportunity to buy £500 worth of stock that he could sell for more than £2,000 by going door-to-door to hotels, restaurants and hairdressers…”
My son was genuinely disappointed when I told him that this was, in fact, a scam and that no-one should be expected to pay for the privilege of earning a living.
I was reminded of this just yesterday when I was contacted by a reader who had been told that his new CCDO smart card was going to set him back £51.
Given the way that training and competence cards are structured in the UK demolition and construction industries, a man (or woman) requires a competence card to be allowed on site and to be allowed to work.
Technology affords such schemes a variety of added benefits, not least of which is security. In a week in which it has been widely reported that there are bogus CCDO cards in circulation, that security carries a value.
And, of course, card schemes and training requires management and administration, both of which also carry a cost.
But surely the priority for the companies and organisations involved in issuing and managing these cards should be the workers, not turning a profit.
Penalising a working man to the tune of £51 merely so he may be permitted to work is tantamount to daylight robbery. And it is a subject that we address in the latest episode of Demolition News Radio.
