Hi guys/Wal,`The Minister’s Office contacted us regarding a request for a meeting`
 Give em heaps Wal, cheers

I whole heartily agree 100% with the below statements

I went along to the meeting intending to raise some issues which I will outline as follows but for various reasons I did not stand and have my say. 1. In its own silly way the board is gradually diminishing the value of any trade qualification under its control 2. I do not see the purpose of any Qualification when it is not recognized in the forum it was created for. I.e. Local Authorities 3. Why do we pay a fee to the board for a license which is not recognized by the local authority. 4. Why as person who is fully qualified with many years experience in the trades yet I cannot carry out my work without authority from a second party. 5. In addition this person gets paid a fee to inspect my work even though he may not understand the principles of the installation 6. Why is an engineer able to sign off on a plumbing design yet I am not 7. I do not see any advantage of my qualifications other than additional fees to the board and perhaps this is part of the reason for the drop off rate in licensed trade’s people. The above primarily relates to a situation I had with the Auckland council when after changing the design of a plumbing installation to suit structural problems a smart arse Audit inspector stopped the job until a new design had been drawn up and approved by either the architect or the engineer but he would not accept it from me . As you would expect I drew up the design because neither of the above could understand what the problem was and after they stamped my design we all carried on. As you can see this situation makes a complete nonsense of any qualification. This has been raised with the board without the courtesy of a reply and the Auckland Council department head would not speak with me. As usual I know this consultation process we are going thru is a complete farce as that Ken Uren stated last year here in Auckland that they only do these consultations because it is a requirement under the act. Generally from my observations the board has done very little to achieve harmony in the work place and seem determined to steam roll their requirements thru. Finally I ask why do other skilled trades groups have less issues with their controlling authority and why do we pay so much so often when the situation in Australia is much more user friendly. I will send $300 dollars shortly.

I will not be relicensing next year

I wont be relicensing next year also. No point.....Landed a job working as a network operator instead. No more getting ripped off by the board and funnelling more and more of my average taxed wage back to the board every year while they sit in their leather office chairs planning the next increase in costs. Its hard work being a plumber/gasfitter/drainlayer to say the least. After having to pay for many items myself over the years, replacing tools as they wear out, power tools included, fees, exam fees, license fees,first time rego fees,codes and standards, boots and other items like wet weather gear etc,earmuffs, safety glasses... as struggling small businesses will simply not fork out for all the extras for an employee in my region which seems to be the norm ive found. its just not worth it for myself and my family. I dont know what the rest of NZ is like but in my region its damm near impossible to get ahead as an employee. Onto the network I have gone where I am safe from the slithering dollar sucking tenticles of the PGDB.......

Message to the members of the current sitting PGDB...the 'Trade Drain' has only just begun...........your killing your own industry, but hey as long as you and your families are being nicely compensated by the boards renumeration packages for your ''services'' to the industry its just business as usual ay??....

To those of you that also run companies and sit on the board, at least in this dying country work will be on the up and up as more trades people leave, are driven away to do something else, making more work for those left in the boards wake. Its a win win in all your eyes hahaha. Its enough to make a common man like myself sick.

I would spit on you all, I really would but it would be a waste of good saliva.........

I hear ya Rodza

what i have seen is large firms get larger and a lot more one man bands popping up

increased overheads are killing the smaller businesses

as a one man band overheads are minimal but then not having the manpower larger profitable contracts become out of reach

I believe it when you say how hard it is to get ahead as an employee

how many short term temporary contractors are there out there?

the sad thing is the ones who endure it the longest stand to profit/benefit the most


what do you do as a network operator rodza?

i read it 

Hi guys,

Yeah its a bit different Intergrated but my skills have come in handy so far and I think I am adjusting well. Im finding it better than working as a plumber as the company I work for (Veolia Water) are good to me unlike my previous employer in the domestic/commercial game. Been doing a bit of everything really. Installing tapping bands on mains, repairing mains and smaller service pipes to propertys, replacing fire hydrants, replacing cups on hydrants (basically a big washer). Hydrant and mains flushing also. All sorts of pipes are in the ground in the city I am in like PVC, AC, Cast Iron, Steel, MDPE, Galv, Copper. When the bigger mains get a hole or a crack its full on, we do a emergency shutdown, door knocking etc and go hard to get the main back online. For fixing holes in most steel mains, say up to 150mm we do it live with custom made two piece straps with s/steel bolts and a special rubber block etc so can get pretty wet haha.

Do a reasonable amount of time on the shovel but its all good. Everyone does. Have also been replacing waste water lateral connections (from house boundary to main) that are old E/W pipe with dropping joints or full of tree roots, unblocking them with a purpose built jetter unit on a trailer, installing rodding eyes at ground level on property boundaries, putting a camera down waste water laterals and mains to check condition and to find causes of blockages etc as well as new mains connections. Do a lot of toby replacements too.Get to play with a lot of new equipment,vehicles,diggers,locators,cameras,gas detectors etc and they are very health and safety conscious as they contract to the local district council. One of their mottos is ''Everyone goes home safe''...... would like to try that one on with some of the companies I interviewed with earlier in the year who tried to use the ''suitable footwear'' clause in the HSE Act 92 to get out of having to provide ''safety boots''....it makes me so god dam angry because they dont give a shit about safety but pretend they do in the interview phase and they get away with it all too often. End of the day it all comes back to money.....

Have been learning a lot about traffic management and identifying hazards, every employee in the field is issued with top of the line PPE gear, it would be hard to not be impressed. We do all our job data as there is a lot of info the council seeks about every job so we have tablets to take care of all of that. They are also loaded with software showing all S/W. S/S and water assets in the city for quick reference when out in the field.

After getting raped by the board and the ITO for ten years, and meeting various employers that have put my health and safety at risk dozens of times as well as ripping me off (my old boss would not re-imburse my tool account after I resigned even) so its a refreshing change. Hoping to start my national certificate as a network water operator,drainage operator eventually, paid for by the company.......they even supply ALL tools required to do the work involved...thats the big difference over working as a domestic/commercial plumber/drainlayer. They want you to get qualified and gain all the various tickets needed AND will supply the tools to you to get their jobs done. (My old boss use to take MY tools from my van that were 100% my own and I would find them in his van....no more putting up with that bullshit...

Get to do wheels tracks,and rollers license endorsement shortly (so I can legitimately operate excavators on council land/roads) , confined spaces training (for manhole entry etc), traffic management courses etc. Hoping eventually to start doing RPZ backflow testing and become IQP and do RPZ repairs also as well as city PRV maintenance, waste water pump station maintenance and treatment plant maintenance in years down the track. There is broad scope to do a lot really.

Never in a billion years would I get these opportunities doing what I use to do....I also have a fair boss(contract co-ordinator) (unlike the tosser, fag I use to be with that treats staff like dirt untill eventually you actually think you are dirt etc)

If anyone ever has a chance to apply for a position as an operator I would say go for it, hear them out and decide if its for you or not. The company I work for is expanding throughout NZ in the next ten years and wont be going away anytime soon. They boast 300,000+ employees in 79 countries. They also offer relocating throughout the world inside their company.

Google Veolia Water and look at some of their Australia andNew Zealand contracts.Some of the aussie ones are impressive,if you want to learn more about them.

Cheers

rodza1.... i am impressed too. well done ....you, like all of us, have to enjoy what your doing for a job, other wise you are just riping yourself off.
lifes experiences give you the prosective to decide what you want and dont want. and thats pretty cool 
cheers