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We are still waiting on the travelling circus to visit out town, but wondering what people who had attended thought of it? It is interesting, riveting, worth the trip?
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Went to the one in Tauranga and you had a room full of some well pissed of tradesmen.
It seemed to me from the the way two guys from the board tried to answer questions that the whole PGDB system is a joke and i think there now thinking of certain changes to save there ass.
Thought the Federation paperwork going round the room was a nice touch.
One thing that maybe some people out there could answer me, with all the uproar over the CPD points for plumbers that's happening now why didn't some of these people stand up when us gasfitters have had to get points for a number of years.
Having only been here for 4 years i'd be interested to here people's views on what was said at the time of it being introduced for gasfitters and did people stand together at the time.
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Hi guys/ade, I hear what you are asking, I was gasfitting when c.b. licensing was introduced, we were sent a letter informing us off the upcoming changes and were offered 4 points towards our 16 if we attended the meetings. This kind of meeting was new with no one really aware of what was being proposed. Phil Routhan outlined the changes that were going to take place in the name of Health & Safety; I will never forget his statement of: we are not here for the benefit of plumbers/gasfitters/drainlayers, but are here to protect the public against you,(or words to that effect). There was some dialog between tradesmen and board but nobody knew exactly what we were getting into, we were there for the 4 points. Also introduced at that meeting was the small ($15) levy to help the council prosecute cowboys doing our work, sounded like a good idea but we all know where that went,(read my spin on the Plumbing Police). Anyway some thought it was b.s. and others thought that; yes we need this protected trade and will be better off if we did the extra training to make sure. I personally walked out halfway through the meeting sighting “deregulation within 10 years” after collecting my 4 points.
The thing is at that time most gasfitters were also plumbers with plumbing making up most of their work load but to have gasfitting as another string to the bow seemed a good idea so do the c.b. licensing and reap the rewards. That worked fine for a few years with different companies offering free point training, but successive years of increased costs/audit problems/charges for points training saw plumber/gasmen giving up the gas (as I did) and just sticking to plumbing, I feel for the designated gasfitters who have to go with the new rules or be unemployed, don`t know what plumbers will choose to do if c.b. licensing becomes a reality but that is the background to the situation today, the changes get introduced innocently and slowly, then balloon into a headless monster out of control, hope this in some way answers your question, cheers