This was an interesting venture in doing the jobs that we are told the British are too lazy to do. Although I have to say it was mainly immigrants I was working with. I'm giving three stars because CTS did try for me and Lindsey at CTS took my side and was sympathetic. It also gave me the opportunity to process back quite a large tax refund. I think however it was a bit of a cheek of CTS to charge workers for their minibus services to/from hard to reach nursing homes. I don't know if they still do this as they did when I worked through them in 2008.
This is about the only piece of employment I've had by consulting the Jobcentre which goes to prove how unpleasant they are.
First assignment at CTS -one day of hospital cleaning at Central Middlesex was actually quite pleasant. Young black guy in charge who was reasonable and ensured we had adequate breaks.
After a world cruise holiday from Australia CTS found me more work. I lasted three days at a hospital in south London for a job that was scheduled to last a month. I am quite a hardworking person who just gets on with a job but this was real slave labour from a European female manager - I wouldn't have lasted if it had been paying 25 Pounds an hour let alone 6 Pounds 50. This job was made worse by constant nagging from a young African woman on some sort of mission. Even by Lindsey's own admission the manager at this assignment was a slave driver.
Nursing home cleaning in Essex and Hertfordshire followed by my having to tube it to Liverpool Street, train it to Waltham Cross and then have CTS' minibus fee deducted from my minimum wages.
Some of the staff including one Polish manager were actually quite nice. However I found a general lack of patience by me being new to this type of work. Some of the old people in the homes were quite nice and the severely disabled in a ga ga vegetative state did not bother me. Mopping and lots of rooms need to be cleaned and hoovered before the minibus arrives to take you back to Waltham Cross and I did not get through my allotted number of rooms.
The final, most unpleasant experience happened at a nursing home in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. A permanent, English employee (although not my superior or manager) harangued, complained bullied to me all during my assignment. Now, I have worked for some demanding, volatile eccentric people who run tight ships and actually in a way quite liked them. But imagine the most hideous, nagging bitch from hell from Eastenders and you had this woman. I noticed she did not do the same to the African temp I was working with because she probably thought she couldn't get away with it.
Lindsey was sympathetic however and told me that other Domestics of hers had encountered this unpleasantness.
CTS did try but these jobs at the NHS and NHS and private nursing homes were very often made unnecessarily unpleasant. My experiences through these assignments have not made me feel any warmer to the NHS (which I already mistrust for good reason) or the care/nursing industry. read more
