ALOT off topic this...

[Lou]

Hey, you make the judgement call on what the "fair" wages is.  If wages were assessed fairly then I don't think any of our salary packets would stay the same.  I have already agreed that you are not paid enough in comparison to the police.  The point I made was that the "average" wage which it is suggested your pay is calculated on is far, far higher than the wage which the average man earns.  No judgement on whether that is fair either.  

What I do think is unfair is that in situations such as yours a fireman (or policeman, or civil servant, or BT worker..etc..etc..etc) in Angus (where I used to live) earns the same as a fireman in Bucks (where I live now) despite the fact that the guy in Bucks may well have to sleep on the floor, or commute from Wales etc and the guy in Angus could buy a 4 bed detached house.  This may well be nicely remedied by house price fixing, but that is not practical - it's an open market.  You could have area supplements on wages though, which rectify wages based on the local house price index....

As for fat cat bar stewards in the south making money off property, us normal folks down here can't afford to buy a house now if we weren't on the ladder already.  My brother, with an "average" job has to lodge with a couple of married friends for any of them to afford a property where they grew up.  

What about retained firemen?  Doing their day job, getting paid rubbish pay, and then turning out at every call for money which probably brings most of them up to even less than £21k?  Should they get whatever money it takes to bring their normal wage up to whatever deal the full-time guys get?  Just a thought......

[Jay]

Is a fireman's life in Berkshire worth more than one in Barnsley then? Need to realise that most jobs don't have the same elements of danger as a fireman, policeman, bomb disposal man etc.

I believe that Firemen's wages should NOT be linked to average earnings because in no way do they do an avaerage job. And as for the inflated economy down south, economies are supported by supply and demand. When there are no teachers / policemen / firemen / dustmen etc in London for example because they can no longer afford to live there, prices of those 'des-res' in Chelsea will soon start to fall. Still, st least they have a nice big tent at Greenwich they can rent out.

Come up North Lou - we have a whale of a time on tuppence ha'penny and still can afford the bus ride home!!

[Lou]

I was up north!  Well, further north than you lot anyway...20 miles north of Dundee to be precise.  And my 2 bed traditional cottage cost me a mere £32k, a pint was £1.60 in the local and the sun always shone (okay, so I'm lying about the last bit).

Then I moved closer to "home" and I earn twice as much, my house cost fours times as much and a pint is £2.20 (but the sun does shine...).

Oxon/Bucks does suffer with no teachers/bus drivers/etc syndrome.  Alot of the blokes who work with my other half travel in from Birmingham, or even south Wales because they can't afford to move here.  Even professional guys (including managers) at my work travel in for the week and go home to places as far afield as Washington-whatever (Newcastle way) at the weekends because after taking a job here they can't afford to actually live here.

'Tis a hard life.......(sounds of violins playing...)

But if you don't link the wages to local earnings you are saying that in real terms the fireman in Berkshire is risking his life for less than the one in Barnsley.  You can see it boths ways..

[Davey Willo]

I think what Lou is trying to say is that she agrees that all firemen should be paid their worth (something I imagine we all agree on) but that a fireman from London who's forced to pay a small fortune to buy a house for his family should not be paid the same as a fireman from Newcastle who can buy the same house for probably 1/3 of the what the guy in London has had to pay...

I agree....

Both firemen should be paid an above average wage for what is an above average job, but there rates should vary depending on what it costs them to live in the areas that they work.

Would a fireman from the North who has x amount of pounds spare after paying all of the bills object to a firemen from the South being paid more as long as after the bills are paid the Southener has the same x amount of pounds spare? I don't think he would object.

I see Lou's point but I'm not sure that the subject needed to be debated.

Best regards
Dave.

[Lou]

Apologies Mr Williamson, sir.

I thought that's what fora were for-a!!

I've already apologised to Mr 2Tanx offline..

:peace:

[andy2tanx]

no apology was needed.  your points were all fair and well said.  up the workers!!!!!

[Davey Willo]

Hmmmm I seem to have upset you Lou when in reality I was trying to do the exact opposite, you seemed to be alone on your thoughts on this subject and I felt the urge to help you get your point across....

Of course forums are for debates, on that point I also agree with you, I simply didn't feel IMHO that we needed to debate the why's and wherefores of this subject too much and said so, a comment which appears to have rattled you somewhat and for that I'm sorry, it definitely wasn't my intent.

As far as I'm concernd I just hope as many people sign the petition as possible and then let the people who can, sort out the local/national issues.

[Lou]

God, I'm obviously having an even worse day than I thought I was!

The last post was in jest - hence the smilie (not a tool I like to use often).

I'm going home (well to the dive shop to take my regs back...) in 1/2 hour, so I promise to be back to normal on Monday.

Have good weekend (except for the jammy gits who are going diving, I am having a dry one)

Cheers

Lou

[Davey Willo]

LOL!!  Oh so thats a smiley.... sorry Lou I honestly thought it was flashing the 'V's at me... Doh!! thats the danger of forums, things can so easily be misinterpreted from what the original poster intended, hence all of the bloody flames wars we see on the net...

My fault, I am a dimwit at times...

BTW, are you sending your regs back to be fixed once more or did u take the shop keeper by the balls and demand satisfaction??................ ;)

[Lou]

I took the regs into my local, friendly, helpful dive shop who are looking at them, if they can't sort them (they are trained Oceanic servicers) they will send them back to Oceanic - again.

The problem I have is that having bought them at the dive show I don't have easy access to the real culprits!  Just hope I get them back quick enough for my planned weekend in Cornwall at the end of the month, if not Portland next weekend.

The guy at the shop thought the seat might have gone....why Oceanic didn't pick that up last time I don't know.

Thanks for enquiring!

:rofl: