Bonus Time

According to the Birmingham Post today wage deals approved by Birmingham City Council as long as 15 years ago make it possible for workers who paint white lines on the roads to earn up to £53,000 a year.

A staff member described as a bollard cleaner can more than double his basic pay to earn £36,000 per year. This includes stand-by payments of £4,500 in case a gully or bollard needs a late-night clean-up.

I make no comment on the sums involved but fellow bloggers will want to know the secrets of various bonus schemes I have encountered in my time travels [sometimes slowly] in Birmingham:

stand by payment: general term for payment for standing by watching others work.

brush down payment: for additional time spent brushing horse attached to cart. Since we no longer have horse and carts it is based on actual time records from 1906 adjusted by the assumed variance in the size of cart horses since that date. Disputes are referred to the president for the time being of the association of rag and bone men in Wednesbury.

shower down payment: for lost time at home showering and changing clothes after day's work. Industrial action threatened in 1985 because payment did not cover gas or electricity consumed at home in heating water. Employers successfully claimed payment originated when men used cold showers at Tysley depot.

equipment allowance: for the tools of the trade including paint brush, wash leather etc. Tools provided by the Council since 1952 so allowance fixed at 1952 level plus inflation at RPI + 3% compounded since that date.

trade society allowance: a fixed sum for membership of certain apron and trouser rolling societies and similar

fodder allowance: a payment for horse feed to cover the cost of feeding the horse when kept in the back yard thereby allowing an early start instead of picking up the horse at the depot. The last horse and cart was used by the Council in 1975 and payments based on costs of feed at that date uplifted by the rise in DERV prices since that time

stable allowance: see above. Assumes each operative has a stable for 2 horses.

unsocial hours payment: for working at any time when others are not working. Some problems of definition.

timesheet payment: for completing timesheets within 1 year of the period to which they relate

spaghetti junction bonus: if all else fails........