So I was walking down the road where I live today when I see a "Trade Waste Services" rubbish truck parked in the middle of the road, in a place where it completely obstructed the flow of traffic in both directions. My road's quite long so I was able to see the situation as it panned out - the empty truck was sitting there with the engine running, and after a while, with a queue of cars either side of it, the driver and his colleague walked out of the off license across the road with a four pack of lager apiece, looking all pleased with themselves! Of course I have no problem with bin men obstructing traffic when they're doing their job, but this was just ridiculous - also, a bit worrying that they were purchasing beer on the job, at 11am! Thoughts? AH
My initial thoughts are that this is perhaps in the wrong forum. Not much to be said either really- they're selfish gits abusing their positions really, but it's not exactly something that happens every day. Should have taken the numberplate and phoned up their respective company to complain. <A88>
those guys are just angry at the work because they were stupid in school and now only make 20k a year.. They do it here too, how in gods name do you think of picking up trash on the one way street of the biggest school in the town from 8-8.30?.. people here are absolutely restarted (sorry relix).
our bin men don't bother coming most of the time... I'd be quite happy if they rolled up off their tits as long as they took my damn bins!
i was thinking euros.. and no.. i dont think thats a lot.. If they were to work 5 days a week for 40 weeks a year, that would be 10 euros a day. A starting waiter earns 7.50 an hour plus tip.. Now imagine lifting trash bags everyday week in week out.. Does sound to fun does it.. Ide get annoyed by doing the same thing every time.. Its sort of like construction workers generally whistling at girl walking by. I guess its just what garbage men think is fun.. Everyone's gets their kick out of something. For a stripper its stealing from some rich drunk guy while hes getting a lap dance, for a pilot its flying through turbulence.. its always something to break the routine that you do.
£20k a year is a pretty high wage tbh, specifically down here in any case (I believe the average here is ~£15k). The thing is if you go by the UK average wage you have to factor in that it also includes London which artificially boosts actual wage numbers for everyone outside of London. In fact a quick google (and from links on job sites) shows that "Refuse collectors" average wage for a "loader" (the guy who slings bins on the back) is ~£13-15k and a driver ~£16-18k with a supervisor being at ~£20-25k Anyway, that's besides the point, yes, it's damned annoying when the bin lorry blocks the road, but doing it for the sake of a personal errand is beyond a doubt selfish.
average wages for bin men would also include london as well surely, so it's relative. Even the highest earners are only just breaking average wage. £15K/year is about £8.24/hour. Are you sure about that?
that sucks, those trash collectors should be more responsible.... anyway you guys are saying that 20K€ a year is a low salary then don't come here, trash men get about twice the minimum wage plus almost free heath care (until they cut this) and some other things, this means that they get about 9K a year, consider that the minimum wage here is about 410€/month, a starting waiter earns the minimum wage and most of the time they survive because of the tips, about 1/5 of the population gets the minimum wage and thanks to the Euro the prices have been leveled to other Euro countries.
People should be wary about using the phrase average... I think the 'average' (i.e. mean) salary is £22k in the UK, but the median is somewhat lower (<£20k). Simply put, more people earn less than £20k than earn more than £20k. This includes London, part-timers and millionaires. Thus if the bin-men are earning £20k they aren't doing that bad. Many of us might hope or expect to earn more, but then again, many bit-tech member are graduates, and I'd wager that the vast majority of us are in decent white-collar jobs (or aspiring to them)
It's more like 12.50 per hour. Although it's not great, it also requires exactly the same level of education as the waiter, and quite a bit less civility. And actually, that varies a lot by location. Around here, a starting waiter makes less than 5 euros per hour plus tip (in the US, minimum wage laws are different for tipped workers - the most recent law I can find puts the minimum wage for tipped employees at 1.59 euros), and the garbage man makes about the 12.50 we've been talking about.
its all relative i guess. but i also think that you make more being a garbage man for a long time, i guess like being a teacher. But yeah, its not something ide like to end up doing..
