Following on from the discussion in the ABSA retrenchment thread:-
In the old days there were 'GUILDS' in every trade, these were independant organisations run by the tradesmen of the particular trade which guaranteed a level of competency by their members.
If you belonged to say, the 'Happy Moon Bricklayers Guild' any employer would be guaranteed that you could lay a thousand bricks per day or build howevermany meters of vertical or horizantal edges/corners in the same time, read plans, order and protect shrinkage and wastage of materials, troubleshoot and keep a tidy site. This was why employers chose and kept 'Guild' members first.
The corollary was that guild members were paid a higher wage than ordinary bricklayers. Same for other trades.
It seems that 'Unions' have levelled all trades to the lowest common denominator demanding that members be paid irrespective of their competency and created a s#!tstorm of paperwork for the employer, this has in turn created the gap for 'Labour Brokers' who do the paperwork and supply the labour/tradesman only when the employer needs them.
Perhaps the answer to Tec-O's gripe about labour brokers is to let the trades form 'Guilds' again so that employers know what they are getting and can budget accordingly.
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