Probably in this sort of job a weekly rate, or if it's an hourly rate it covers contracted hours of whatever they are? Like I said above, there are many companies that get away with this, it's not a clocking on and clocking off sort of job - and if you don't like it, well there's a queue of people wanting to be holiday reps. Therein lies the problem.

'Desirable' jobs are often poorly paid because they know people will do them.

The working hour directive is all well and good in certain types of job where you've got a set shift, if you're hourly paid etc., it will all be monitored and overtime will be paid for and agreed to. My last place contracts stated under working hours 'at least 40 hours per week'. Meaning you are not expected to leave the place at your 'finish time'.

I guess many self employed people if they worked it all out down to hourly payment they would also be on a very poor rate.

Also, we must remember that alpha5brit's daughter is currently doing the work of 3 people (don't seem to be in a hurry to send help out do they?).

it was stated that this rep gets paid 80p per hour for 88 hour week. this is £70.40 per week. i assume that this is an after tax/NI figure as the impression being given here is how poorly paid the job is, and if it was before tax i'm sure that would have been mentioned! how much per hour are the wages if only a 56 hour week are done?
there are many people doing live-in jobs in this country in the same boat ie bar staff/residential care workers etc
we have not been told of the figure at the top of the pay slip,before any deductions for board and lodgings etc, but only what we can assume to be net pay. there is also no mention of commission.
in any job in a service industry, and i've done my share, you will sometimes work long hours for apparently no money, but other weeks you will have relatively little to do and struggle to fill all your working hours.this is the nature of these type of jobs.we have a choice-albeit not much of one!
i am not denying the work can(and probably does, regularly)involve long hours, but £70 per week in your pocket with no gas/electric/rates etc doing a job you enjoy in the sun is not really a huge hardship.
the impression being given(and i apologise if i'm wrong) is of a poor rep who works all the hours under the sun for no money and no time to enjoy themselves and all they do is eat and sleep.

sorry, started this post about 1.00, but i have had to do some work and so missed some of the other posts before eventually getting this posted.

When you think of BHIC at his age (no offence BHIC) earning £5.25 per hour in the care industry it is disgusting

The care industry has always paid low wages, ever since I was a glint in my fathers eyes.
The only time the wage increased was when a person trained for 3 years and became a qualified nurse.
Care assistants do not need any form of training to be employed in Privately owned Nursing homes.
Private being the operative word, low wages, more profit for the owner.
I don`t agree that BHIC should because of his age, be paid anymore for doing the same job as a 19 year old....it is classed as unskilled labour and therefore attracts people who do it for the love of the job and caring for people .....and it also attracts people who use it as a stop gap, either between jobs and to get the job centre off their backs.

The owner/employer is to blame because had it not been for the minimum wage, these people would be paid peanuts and that is absolutely disgusting when people are paying 100`s of pounds a week to keep their relatives in these homes.

I`m not saying ALL care home do not provide a good service, or that there are some very caring people who work in them..... but, if the pay is peanuts, then you will attract monkeys.

in all my most recent jobs, they have been "exempt" from the extra hours rules ( and breaks and stuff too!) as they have involved care work but in any case, i still had to sign a form saying i would be ok working over time. many was the time in my care home setting when i was a Team Leader and therefore in charge i had to stay over to solve a problem or pick up a shift at short notice and not get to go home in between time. I once worked 41 hours none stop.

alot of these places, when you get the job, they "hint" that if you don't sign the waver form you will not get the job anyway.. now that i am older, i would tell them where to stick it, but when you are young and maybe desperate for a job you think is glamerous and obviously, you are naiive.. then you wouldn't know any better but to sign.

i don't know what category reps would come under, but i am certain they would not fall under the "exempt" category.

How about working days, afternoons and nights all in one week.? and your body clock doesn`t know what planet you are on.?
How about the days when we had what was called "split shifts". in other words, you started at 7-15 am and worked until 2 pm. from 2pm until 5 pm, you were off duty and could go home if you so wished, but unless you had a car or lived near the hospital, it wasn`t worth it...so, you hung around until 5 pm and then when back on duty until 9 pm.

That`s what I call a long day...and just as you were about to go home some old dear decided to mess herself and tried to get out of bed to go to the toilet, landing on the floor... you then had to stay behind and fill in the relevant paperwork, to report an accident, get her cleaned up, and arrange for a doctor who was probably having a quiet snooze and wasn`t too happy at being disturbed, to come down and check her over before you could go home.

The pay? peanuts....the perks? none...the moaning? NEVER !!!!

Well said Sanji. See my post about my daughter a few pages back!

We can't compare holiday reps to care workers. For starters caring is either a vocation or for some (and I mean a few) a job that they can do without qualifications and in shift patterns. The perks are knowing that you are helping people. Er, that's about it. Rewarding, should I say - even though you don't get any rewards.

At least with rep job, if you do summer season, well you have a whole winter to recover. If you work ski season as well, you at least get a break of a couple of weeks before swapping from one to the other. Late season as a tour rep will be quieter, less guests, less hassle, plenty of time to let your hair down. You never get that being a careworker.

So far as pay and long hours go, well that's the only real similarity in my eyes.

But thats the whole point we are trying to make SandC, we are saying that in our opinion, while we can recognise that Reps do work long hours etc.............its sometimes hard to listen to complaints when there are people doing jobs with just as long hours in not as nice an environment, and for no more wages. Get a Care Assistant to tell you how much money she has left at the end of the week when she pays her rent, electricity, food etc etc etc and I wonder if she would have £70 left?

No disrespect to the lovely lady who put such a detailed post on about her duties.

So far as pay and long hours go, well that's the only real similarity in my eyes.

Yes, plus you are dealing with the general public in both jobs.
Yes, whether you are dead on your feet or not, you have to be civil and caring to the patient.
Yes, you have to look smart in appearance at all times.
Yes, you may miss your break because of the situation on the wards, or because of the lack of staff.
Yes, you now get paid for overtime and unsociable hours,(NHS) but until recently, that was not the case.
Yes, you have targets to meet, paperwork to do and are accountable to not only the senior, but also the relatives.
Yes, you are on many occasions dealing with a life and death situation, not sorting out some cockroach apartment.
Need I go on....?

sanji I'm not getting at anyone. My father is in a private nursing home and the staff there are wonderful, care workers I especially have time for because they get the brunt of it. Okay the nurses and matron work incredibly hard but they get more of a financial reward for it.

I was saying I personally can't compare the two as like for like because one is a desirable job that has waiting lists and all sorts. Not the case for care workers.

Listen hun, I`m not getting at anyone either, so nobody take it personal please, and I apologise if it came over that way.

I can fully and totally understand from the mothers point of view about worrying, I`ve been there myself, but like Tootsie has pointed out, there are many people doing similar jobs in the UK, some of whom never see the light of day in our modern sweat shops.

So, whilst I apreciate the point of the post, I cannot help comparing to jobs in this country that are "worse" than reps.

SanJi x

Yes, I agree, and the OP was mainly to alert people to the fact that reps don't just go sit at a table for an hour in a hotel reception then sunbath all afternoon before going and sitting at another table in a hotel reception then going out on the town.

well said all of you. Each one of you has a valid point.. and i have been there and done that in care settings ( when in the private sector working with adults with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour) even being in the firing line when i was at manager level ( as in cleaning up incontinent patients and changing pads etc as well as being the recipient of verbal and physical aggression from disturbed clients) and yes the pay was lousy.. but not once ever did i think of packing it in to be a holiday rep!!!

Now i work for the NHS in a well known hospital and i would not dream of changing that for being a holiday rep either.. even though this is a very difficult and demanding place to work.. i would rather do this any day of the week than put up with what a holiday rep has to do ( and i think my job is alot harder).. even more of a reason why i admire Brit5alpha's daughter for sticking with what she does.

Before anyone jumps in.. i am trying not to compare the 2 jobs as they are the same but different ( if that makes any sense at all i think sanji may have explained it quite well earlier)

My friend wouldn't go back to the wards (auxiliary in child admissions) from her rep job - so it can work the other way around!

Then again, not all rep jobs are the same, working for a large tour operator looking after hotels in a busy resort is not the same as living on site on a french campsite looking after 60 mobile homes, and as brit5alpha has pointed out earlier on, her daughter should have more time off than she does but for the current circumstances.

We actually seem to be agreeing then!

Well at the risk of sounding extremely simplistic, maybe Brit5alpha's daughter will get a "better deal" next year if she stays on at repping, having gone through this rough patch maybe she will have proved herself invaluable and will get something more rewarding next year!

I do hope so Brit5alpha!

I'm sure she will. My friend was made manager in her second year. Right place, right time, but also she was older at 27. As you get older and more experienced the TOs like to put you in the more sophisticated places (no doubt with the more sophisticated clientele who will find even more trivial things to moan about than us!). First season must always be the worst!

Just think - do you ever see reps doing the caribbean etc. who are in the first couple of years of the job? Nah! A few years and the world, quite literally could be her oyster.

We actually seem to be agreeing then!

Ahhh, you just needed me to make an appearance
You know you have missed me Toots

Sanji xxxx

There are very young reps in the caribbean now who are only doing there second year there was a thomas cook one at our hotel in cuba this year.

aint it great when everyone agrees

it would be great for brit5alphas daughter if all her hard work and efforts were rewarded by being moved to something better next year. I am sure she has proved her worth time and time again..

send her to the canaries.. i am guaranteed to run into her at some point!!!