UK & The Euro.

[Don Rafferty]

John, think someone has mentioned being paid by the yardage. This is if I remember was called peace or piece work up the North of England. Cheers JS

I'm fairly sure it was piece-work, an amount of money for an amount of work and was fairly universal, your Aussie brickies on $2 per brick were on it although may have called it something else. Any dry stone walling or hedge laying is still priced in chains - 22 yards.

[Jim Brady]

I remember when times were good it was £300.00 per thousand, recently (although its starting to pick up) they were lucky if they could get £100.00 per thousand. don't forget that's between the gang two and one,two brickies and a carrier,some brickies gave a good carrier a three way split whilst some ripped him off and gave him a daily rate.A good carrier earned the brickies their wages.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Rodney Mills]

I was a hod-carrier for about ten minuets. It was my third job after leaving school, I had a nine months wait before I could join the M.N., so I'd take any employment I could get.

I put my lunch bag down behind a barrow or something and reported for work. One of the bricklayers showed me how to load the hod and I made it somehow up the ladder to the other bricklayer...damn it was heavy. I came back down, loaded the hod, put it on my shoulder, and started up the ladder. I was half way up when I heard somebody calling. I stopped looked around, nothing, then I leaned back and looked up. The bleddy bricks slid off the hod: I'd put the hod loaded with bricks on my shoulder back to front. The shouting had been from the bricklayer who had taught me . He was standing below. He jumped back tripped and fell on his butt, the load of bricks just missed him. I came down the ladder, retrieved my lunch bag and went home.

My next job was making bricks, I lasted about three weeks.

Cheers, Rodney

[happy daze john in oz]

Raising taxes to get the nation out of trouble is one way but may not be the best.
The ral problem with the west now, and we have the same problem here in Oz, is that govs have been for many years living beyond their means.
The last Labor gov here in Oz spent like a man with no arms, money at every thing, now the current gov has to clean up the mess.
It is like using a credit card, put too much on end up with trouble paying it off and the interest kills you.
Oz is currently paying $1billion per month in interest, so in an effort to correct the deficit they are to cut some services and means test some of the benifits people get.
Many of these are rorted along the way so a clean up is no bad thing.

As to the brickie, here in Melbourne a good one will get about $1 per brick and lay around 850 per day. Average brick veneer house has a bout 8,000 so around $8,000 for 9 days work.
However some of the building companies to keep costs down in a very competitive industry are only paying a fixed sum of $5,000 per house. They end up with cheap overseas brickies who do not do such a good job.

[Jim Brady]

Murphy go's for a job on the building site as a hod carrier,he gets a start,he says to the boss shall I put me coat in that hut,the boss replied that's the hod.

Listen to this one Murphy And The Bricks it should kick off your Christmas with a good chuckle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWeXpNyqOrU