Charge a fair rate for your work

In response to the request for ideas regarding pay per CP12s, the only way we can get a resolution to this lack of pay per CP12 is to stop giving our services to these types of agencies and agents.

In my area, Wiltshire, the average I charge for a CP12 is £75, which seems to be the middling figure. And I have no shortage of work.

I probably answer at least a call a day from agencies and holding companies that the public ring for a repair. Once they finish their opening speech and get to the business end of the talk – ie, the rates – I tend to have to snigger and remind them it’s not the 1970s.

Maybe we gas engineers should stop working for these sharks just for a month. This would be a bit of short-term pain for a fair rate for a CP12. After all, we are skilled people and deserve fair pay. Especially with the costs incurred of being gas engineers – registration, analysers and calibration, the cost of a van and running costs, insurances, tools, etc.

A good friend of mine (a newly retired engineer) did some calculations seven or eight years ago and worked out that the hourly rate at which he would break even was £16.51: after that he would make a living.

Maybe it’s time for us all to have rethink and withdraw our services for a while until these agencies pay a fair rate.

Tim Maslin, Maslins Gas and Oil