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Home Forums ROV ROV Employment Discussion Urgent ! Urgent ! Wanted Experienced Rov Personnel ! Reply To: Urgent ! Urgent ! Wanted Experienced Rov Personnel !

#32802
James McLauchlan
Participant

Lets assume we are talking UK based agency rates here.

Sorry, but all this has been brought on the industry by the people that keep it alive: ROV Techs.

I feel that, these days, there are too many agencies in the fray they (Agencies) are accepting contract with low rates in a bid to keep their books live. This translates into depressed day rates and inter-agency competition.

If ROV peeps would shop around looking for better rates then the rates would have to go up. As it is, people seem to take whatever is on offer and later complain in the coffee shop (offshore) that the rates are crap and they won’t be coming back! Way too late!

The Agencies are trying to keep their businesses running. I see nothing wrong with that. If I were in their shoes I would do the same.
ROV peeps should be doing the same also, but it appears that they are not the best of business people, so are allowing themselves to be taken to the cleaners. It’s clear to me that as long as UK ROV peeps keep going it alone they will lose out in the longer term.

Which, in turn, plays right into the hands of the operators.

Two fixes:

Operate with a sizeable cash buffer as a backup. It allows you to proffer a polite No! when you need to.
Nobody needs the biggest mortgage on planet earth, a new car very year etc.. but plenty of people I have met offshore seem to think that keeping up with the Jones’s and ending up maxed out on mortgage/finance/loans/credit cards is the way to go. Recent global events should be able educate a few on the perils on that approach! If Countries and Banks can’t operate by borrowing nor should individuals!

An actual example of saying no when you need to….
Two years ago I was offered work by an Agency as a client rep. They had my CV, client had approved and they were all ready to send me out on the job in a couple of days, but when they advised me of the rate I suggested they come back with a better offer or I’ll not be going. Up to this point discussions had taken place solely by email. The phone rang. ‘Sorry but this is the rate we have agreed with the client, we have no choice on upping the rate so you should take it.’ I gave them a polite no! and wished them luck finding a (more gullible) person to fill the slot. They were clearly not used to being turned down as the person on the end of the phone asked me to clarify why I was turning the work down, even though I had already told them!
I put the phone down an started chasing other work that was lurking in the background. The job I finally took paid far more that had been offered by the agency in the example above.

The other option is Union backing to set an ROV agreement in place which would cover rates and conditions in the UK. Oz and UK divers have that in place. Oz ROV have that in place. They all enjoy set rates (with annual or bi-annual increases) and reasonable conditions that cannot be screwed with, other than via negotiation.

Whilst I feel Raptors pain on what is going on, I also know that low/erratic rates will prevail (for UK sourced operations) as long as UK ROV types think that they can operate:

  • Alone (not bargain collectively)
  • On the basis that work will come all year round.
  • Maxed out financially (and thus have to take what is on offer or go bust)
  • On the misconception that rates should be stable or climbing annually (even though there is no mechanism in place to facilitate that!)

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