[dai]

I was talking to a guy last week that had just started up on his own, after working for a cowboy outfit,
This is the way this cowboy operates.
He is good at canvassing, and gets a good supply of new work.
2] He lets it be known that there is cash in hand jobs available for young guys that have just left school with few, if any qualifications, no matter if they are drawing benefits.
3]He supplies the ladders and equipment, takes them to the job in the morning, and will go back to pick them up if they need to be moved further than they can walk.
 He never cleans the windows himself, and The lads collect the money.
4] He Say's that he is just renting the round out to a bunch of guys that are trading as window cleaners.
As far as he's concerned they are self employed.
5] he takes 40% of the money earned that day as rent of the round.
If they make £300 a day, he takes his £120, and it's up to the lads how they split up the rest.
If there 3 of them it's £60 each cash in hand, a nice little top up to their dole money.
What these lads are doing is defrauding the system, but the guy running all this seems to be doing nothing wrong, and has been operating in this way for more than 10 years.
No insurance or holidays to pay for, a sweet little operation that we are obliged to compete with.
He deliberately targets young lads that can't drive, this ensures that they don't get any ideas about starting up on their own.
What the hell can we do about it? Dai

[poleman]

YES one local to me springs to mind p me off  bring in licensing and get the lows life out of are industry, putting young lives at risk, for his own ends 

Andy 

[dave0123]

Same here reminds of the a bunch of lads! and his prices are reasonable compaired to other idiots in the area! of a 3 bed semi arond 6-7 pounds. he has 3/4 lads working for him from the estates they come round walking through ur garden to houses they dont do! swearing there heads off and wearing tainers trackies shaved heads etc and also dodgy ladders without grips on. they must only be about 19 20 at most.

iv had a few jobs from this company because of customers just thinking there a bunch of "scallys" tbh! one woman said they swore infront of a little 4 year old girl... and i could go on. and they do have quote alot fo work must be around about 500 700 jobs a month

its terible really tbh. the person who runs it if he gets rid of the idiots gets some uniforms stop being so greedy and pay lads properly i think he would have a very good business with proberly around 900 1000 customers through the professional look.

[Wayne Thomas]

I was talking to a guy last week that had just started up on his own, after working for a cowboy outfit,
This is the way this cowboy operates.
He is good at canvassing, and gets a good supply of new work.
2] He lets it be known that there is cash in hand jobs available for young guys that have just left school with few, if any qualifications, no matter if they are drawing benefits.
3]He supplies the ladders and equipment, takes them to the job in the morning, and will go back to pick them up if they need to be moved further than they can walk.
 He never cleans the windows himself, and The lads collect the money.
4] He Say's that he is just renting the round out to a bunch of guys that are trading as window cleaners.
As far as he's concerned they are self employed.
5] he takes 40% of the money earned that day as rent of the round.
If they make £300 a day, he takes his £120, and it's up to the lads how they split up the rest.
If there 3 of them it's £60 each cash in hand, a nice little top up to their dole money.
What these lads are doing is defrauding the system, but the guy running all this seems to be doing nothing wrong, and has been operating in this way for more than 10 years.
No insurance or holidays to pay for, a sweet little operation that we are obliged to compete with.
He deliberately targets young lads that can't drive, this ensures that they don't get any ideas about starting up on their own.
What the hell can we do about it? Dai

The chap 'renting out' the rounds has a responsibility to check that these lads  have employment elsewhere when sub-contracting them. If they weren't on the dole then he would be responsible for their holiday pay, sickness pay, tax, N.I, etc as he would be classed as their employer.
There is an anonymous hotline to phone up for benefit cheats.
The inland revenue would be very interested to hear of chaps who rent out rounds illegitemately without declaring their additional earnings to the taxman.
I would imagine Health & Safety Executive would also be interested in the safety of these lads as I would imagine they have no insurance and have probably not had any safety training or have been made aware of risks associated with this job.

[frames to panes]

One near me hasn't worked full time for twenty years because of a bad back! Does exactly the same and claims the benifits too. The guys doing the work all claim in some way as well. All cash in hand and very difficult to trace. They have big rounds away from their home town.

[dai]

The problem is this guy has several young guys, some may only work a couple of days a week but theres always three or four of them working on any given day.
He will say he is neither subcontracting or employing, he just rents out work and equipment,
As I said he has been operating this way for ten years, he will argue that it is up to the young guys to fill out their own tax returns. I think he has found a loophole, and it's one that needs stopping. Dai

[Wayne Thomas]

I drove past a small WC Crew the other day, pulled over to watch for a few minutes, pretending to take a phone call. Cheap ladders, trainers, tatty T shirts,skinhead haircuts, shouting and swearing at each other and best of all, one had a can of special brew in his hand, finishing it off, just before he climbed up his diy ladder.
  The reason people will pay these guys, is that there are not enough professional window cleaners around, interested in domestic work.! The area I was in , I would call middle class suburban, semi detached 1930's quality houses.
 The solution? I dont know, it just seems that the cowboys spring up where ever there is no alternative supplier.

It's not necessarily a lack of professional window cleaners in an area that allows the dole brigade to surface. It's the customers who choose the cheaper dole boys to do a cheaper job in the first place.

[TennetClean]

I've known window cleaners to do this, its a cheap way of getting workers.

Never works out v well though, as the workers see firsthand the profits that can be made

[m b shaw]

a few years ago i had this problem a chap came up to me saying what was i doing working in his area.well i m not the shy retiring sort so i was straight in his face and said what the flip was he and his scumbag lads doing in my area .i said in fact lets let the dhss sort it out and got my mobile out.he did nt even reply as he shouted to his lads to load the car up.i still work the area to this day and clean all the houses he left.the way to stop this sort of thing is to tell the powers that be and let them stop it.no one likes being a snitch but these people are cutting my earnings down as well as taking benefits that we all pay for.
                               cheers mick