Hi all, just wondering if you tradesmen charge for lunch breaks. Had a customer the other day moan when i gave her the bill that she had been charged whilst i had my dinner breaks. I said the clock starts ticking when i leave my house and stops when i leave the customers house any anything in between like coffee and lunch breaks is charged for (lunch is 15 minutes).Funny thing is the conversation we had cost her £9.
lunch breaks
- Thread starter sawdust1
- Start date
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monkeybiter
Established Member
You talked about this for an hour and a half?
petermillard
Established Member
Very good! =D>monkeybiter":343kom2h said:
To the OP - I don't generally work on hourly rates, usually a day-rate or a price for the job so the issue hasn't really come up, but yes, customers are charged for the time spent on the job, and everyone is entitled to pause occasionally to eat or drink. Must say, I find it very odd when I hear of customers quibbling about this sort of thing - after that sort of pettiness, you're hardly going to be dashing back there to help the lady out in future, are you?
Cheers, Pete.
Graham Orm
Established Member
What's a lunch break? I charge a figure for the job which includes any stoppages. Any company would pay you during your lunch break.
henton49er
Established Member
monkeybiter":flz1miu0 said:
=D> =D> :lol: :lol: =D> =D>
whiskywill
Established Member
Grayorm":3kp91yhn said:
Really? I, like most I suspect, am paid an annual salary for working an agreed number of hours over an agreed number of weeks. It does not include lunch breaks.
Indeed - it's mandatory for a regular employer to provide his employees with minimum-length breaks with a maximum number of hours of work between them, but that doesn't mean they have to pay you for them.whiskywill":hx7d1m2x said:
(That said, most people don't really get paid an hourly rate at all, even if their salary is worked out that way when it comes to paying off holiday entitlement at the end of employment or deducting wages for missed hours or whatever. If you want proof, stay at your office job an extra hour in the evening and see what difference it makes to your paycheck! ;-)
Ian down london way
Established Member
Grayorm":2kuz3k0d said:
Hum.
Woodwork is my hobby only. My work is designing computer systems that control large ships. My company is large (80k employees world wide). In the UK, we are required (H&S) to take a lunch break of 30 minutes within any 6 hour period. We do NOT get paid for lunch breaks. We are paid from the time we arrive (our contracted place of work) until we leave, less the lunch break. Some while back, our lunch times was shortened from 1 hour to 30 minutes, which allowed us to leave 2.5 hours earlier on a Friday - a move that was very much approved of by unions and staff. Now, we use an electronic time booking system, and can adjust out lunchtimes up, if we take longer, or down, although alarms ring if we don't have the statutory breaks which our employer is obliged to give us.
Oh, and when we bill customers, we bill them for time excluding the lunch times.
Any company would pay you during lunch break? I don't think so.
Graham Orm
Established Member
Ian down london way":36c2knln said:
Having not worked for anyone but myself for over 30 years I have to admit I'm behind the times with unions and 'obligatory rest times'. Personally I take a sandwich and flask onto the job and eat when I'm hungry and have a brew when I'm thirsty. I don't sit down to do this or stop work. I think you'll find this is how most of the 'tradesmen' you are asking for help work.
Did you set an hourly rate for the job or give her a price for the whole job? If you gave her and hourly rate then maybe she had a right to comment. If you gave her a price for the work then she definitely didn't. The ONLY time I would quote an hourly rate would be for family, when there is an element of trust on both sides.
Lons
Established Member
Grayorm":3p3dpyii said:
I'm exactly the same and would never quote an hourly rate to anyone.
I price for the job and it's swings and roundabouts. If it takes less time then I win a litt, if longer then I lose but the customer has the choice at the beginning to accept the price or not.
There's always some who will "take the p*ss". Don't think about that when they ask "will you have a quick look at this - while you're here" and don't expect to pay for the work / advice.
Bob
powertools
Established Member
sawdust1":3ko89089 said:
That has got to be the strangest thing I have ever read. I doubt if you would be happy taking a 20 min taxi journey and the driver left the meter running while he queued up and filled up the car with fuel mid way through the trip.
We don't get paid lunch breaks....
Our basic hours are 8-4.30, with 30 mins paid at 10am, and 30 mins unpaid at 1pm.
They don't charge customers for the 1pm break, whether its workshop based, or site based that particular day or job.
More often than not, if I am on my own at the 1pm break, I will work through, and book it as overtime. (I'm paid hourly, not salary)
Our basic hours are 8-4.30, with 30 mins paid at 10am, and 30 mins unpaid at 1pm.
They don't charge customers for the 1pm break, whether its workshop based, or site based that particular day or job.
More often than not, if I am on my own at the 1pm break, I will work through, and book it as overtime. (I'm paid hourly, not salary)
brianhabby
Established Member
Grayorm":h3rx4g83 said:
Definitely NOT the company I work for
regards
Brian
Graham Orm
Established Member
Just asked my wife who works full time for a large company. To my surprise, she doesn't get paid for break times.
What if this woman had employed a company to carry out the work and the OP had been employed by them and had to have a break by law?
What if this woman had employed a company to carry out the work and the OP had been employed by them and had to have a break by law?
Hi all, interesting debate here as usual, thats why i like uk workshop. Monkeybiter my hourly rate is £18 so we spoke for 1/2 hour = £9. Perhaps i should charge daily rates instead of hourly rates, difficult to price for most jobs as my customers usually have a list of various jobs they need doing some take an hour some take a day. Just finished a 2 months job complete referb on a bungalow, stripped it out back to shell then put back as new, how could i price for a job like that. I have done jobs that i thought max 1/2 day and still been on it next day, on a day rate i would be on a loss. Thats why the sparkies sat in their van reading the paper for an hour each lunch break because they were on a job price.
Graham Orm
Established Member
sawdust1":3dednj57 said:
Welcome to my world :wink: You take the rough with the smooth. When that happens I don't rush. It just winds you up even more. I'm still on a learning curve after all these years.
pip1954
Established Member
hi all
with twenty three years in the building trade i have never heard of any company that pays for tea / dinner breaks. nine of those years i worked for myself never worked for hourly rate always priced up the job as has been said some you win some you lose you should have an idea of what you can do in a day to be competitive.
pip
with twenty three years in the building trade i have never heard of any company that pays for tea / dinner breaks. nine of those years i worked for myself never worked for hourly rate always priced up the job as has been said some you win some you lose you should have an idea of what you can do in a day to be competitive.
pip
petermillard
Established Member
No, it's easy; get a list of jobs before you start and be realistic about how long they'll take.sawdust1":3onv1k3x said:
Day rate x 40 (or however many working days in 2 months) with a discount if you're feeling benevolent. Seriously, it's not hard to work out..
Yes, sometimes we get it wrong; take on the chin but don't forget - learn from it!
Best, Pete
Lons
Established Member
I too have customers who save jobs for me to make it worthwhile as they know I won't go for only an hour or so. The least I would charge is 1/2 day unless I can tie in several jobs very close to each other. it just doesn't make good business sense to spend a sizeable part of the working day travelling between jobs and not being paid.
My customers know my terms and also that I will help out if really urgent but there are DIY guys out there willing to fit a door handle for peanuts if that's what they want.
What I do give is honesty and reliability and I do a great job however long it might take and as said, you soon learn from your mistakes. I rarely stop for lunch and drink tea while I'm working so they're not being charged for that anyway and I have a large repeat customer base so must be doing something right. Many of them don't even ask for a price as they know I won't rip them off.
It's all about being fair and building a solid reputation!
Bob
My customers know my terms and also that I will help out if really urgent but there are DIY guys out there willing to fit a door handle for peanuts if that's what they want.
What I do give is honesty and reliability and I do a great job however long it might take and as said, you soon learn from your mistakes. I rarely stop for lunch and drink tea while I'm working so they're not being charged for that anyway and I have a large repeat customer base so must be doing something right. Many of them don't even ask for a price as they know I won't rip them off.
It's all about being fair and building a solid reputation!
Bob
