Thread: Are our tradies getting paid too much

Originally Posted by incisor

try being in your 50'ies and wanting a sea change

there needs to be a fundamental change in thinking from what i have seen

In my DSS days I was told by a senior CES officer that anyone over forty should take any job they were offered as it likely would be the only one.

Most unemployment clients only sought work in occupations and/or industries they had been in for years and only in reasonably close locations. They needed to be convinced to broaden their outlook to a wider range of occupations and industries and to accept the fact that many people travelled long times and distances to and from their job.

The ones who faced the biggest challenges were those in their forties and up without formal qualifications who had started with a business as a teenager and by virtue of work ethic, knowledge, and experience had risen to high levels in the company. When these people were laid off they found themselves competing with much younger university graduates and often had to face the facts that they were most unlikely to ever get that level of job again.

I was bloody lucky to be be to jump from trade to training / management the legacy of being a tradesman for all my working life is quite bluntly a broken body. If it wasn't for becoming an apprentice trainer and then a manager I would probably be on a pension trying to live from day to day.

Not even about want in my case. It's need.

Originally Posted by incisor

try being in your 50'ies and wanting a sea change

there needs to be a fundamental change in thinking from what i have seen

It is a little difficult to understand the thinking that makes employers prefer younger people.

Isn't it the case that a lot of 50 year olds have grown up in an era when the expectation was that they would enter a profession or trade after school and work at that job for most of their life.

Today's school leavers on the other hand are well aware of the fact that they will, on average, work in eight different jobs during their working life.

Apart from all the other advantages that 50 year old employees have over teenagers, doesn't that mind set mean they are more likely to be a reliable, committed employee? Isn't it more likely that they would see a job as a job for (the rest of their) life?

Is there some complicating factor like superannuation that makes it better to employ a young person?

at the moment i would be happy if i could get a regular part time job within a reasonable distance. back in july centre link unofficially told me You are close enough to 50 , give up " when i check the paper and comp. sites i often see ads for what i am interested in , but they are after juniors with own transport and forklift ticket. might have to dye my hair and get a fake id.

It must be hard to be a struggling tradie when you drive a brand new SS/GT/XR8/XR6/ XRturbo/tricked up hilux/navara/dmax/triton/BT /Ranger etc ute , i know they claim on tax but thats just ridiculous.

Originally Posted by loanrangie

It must be hard to be a struggling tradie when you drive a brand new SS/GT/XR8/XR6/ XRturbo/tricked up hilux/navara/dmax/triton/BT /Ranger etc ute , i know they claim on tax but thats just ridiculous.

Really, the down time on a dunger ute is going to cost you more than the regular repayments on a brand new ute. I inherited an old Mazda ute that had blown a head gasket, by the time the owner tried to have it fixed by a mechanic he would have lost heaps of work. And it would still have been a dunger!

Originally Posted by bee utey

Really, the down time on a dunger ute is going to cost you more than the regular repayments on a brand new ute. I inherited an old Mazda ute that had blown a head gasket, by the time the owner tried to have it fixed by a mechanic he would have lost heaps of work. And it would still have been a dunger!

I agree but you dont need a 6ltr V8 with leather trim to carry a toolbox around do you ?