[alisonh21]

hi everyone, need some advice please, ive got the chance to put a tender in for cleaning contract in a 3 storey office building, they have council cleaners at the min but i have no idea how much they charge, does anyone know what their price may be and how much per hr should i charge, ill be working 8 hrs a day for 5 days a week,
any advice would be great thanx 

[Denise l]

Council have to pay into their employee pensions so be careful as you will inherit that under T.U.P.E regulation and outstanding holidays left.
Other than that about £11 per hour.


Denise

[alisonh21]

hi denise

if i get the contract it will be just me doing the work any employees of the council wont be working there anymore, i thought about £11 per hr so i cnt be far wrong with my pricing although i did hear a wisper that the council charge anything up to £20 an hour

alison

[Denise l]

Good Luck then, hope you get it.

D

[clarkson]

 Hi
 Denise has a point just because  the council may not be involved anymore doesnt mean T.U.P.E.  wont be invoked for there staff.

 cheers

 john
 

[Bedfordshire Oven Cleaning]

hi denise

if i get the contract it will be just me doing the work any employees of the council wont be working there anymore, i thought about £11 per hr so i cnt be far wrong with my pricing although i did hear a wisper that the council charge anything up to £20 an hour

alison

I would be very very careful there, you need to make it bulletproof that there wont be any TUPE implications for you. I cant stress this enough, just because somebody tells you this DO NOT take this as gospel. You need to see this in writing before you submit a quote. I had this a long time ago, and believed what I was told, it wasn't true and I almost got stuffed, properly stuffed. Luckily I got away with it.

Around £11 ph for commercial is where about I would be, but you need to take advice on the above, TUPE is law and its your job to check this. And seeing as it is a council who are the incumbent contractor, even more reason to check this out, it would have been set up properly.
Regards
Paul

[Gilbert Sprous]

I will tell you now, most council contracts come with  an obligation of reconsigning a union.  I took one on 3 years ago and it has proven to be profitable.  but to let you know what you may be in for, TUPE, TUPE, TUPE.  I can guarantee that the union is involved in there if it is council  I had 6 employees and 5 were a member of the Union, it was two unions but officially you only have to recognise one I think.  But be prepared to talk with a bullpoopter that knows what they are talking about.  If your ducks are not in order they will eat you up.  The cost of joining the LGPS (local government pension scheme) is not cheap.   I had to pay for actuator fees of 1400 GBP and then I had to pay a bond (I am a small company) of 8000 GBP which I had put up by a company and it cost me 1200.   The original bond they asked for was 80,000 GBP and you have to put up a specific argument to get it lowered which, if your situation is the same I will talk to you about. 

But I can not stress more than enough, the law says you can not take over a contract without offering the current employees the job with a few exceptions.  1.  If the job is carried out by the owner of the company currently servicing the contrat (a small company as you are planning to do).  2.  The current employee has been there less than a year (you will still need to do TUPE due diligence and take them on but pretty easy to get rid of later if necessary).  3.  The current employee work at the site is less than 50% of the employees total work (some HR companies will say 70%) by that company (they work other sites).  If there are empolyees there, there will always be some type of TUPE implication and you better be aware, and you better be aware of the cost of LGPS.

Now saying all that I have 95 hours per week, and the council was charging 8.92 per hour, but the place paid for cleaning equipement and chemicals.  I charge 9.20 per hour and had to fix problems.  I talking big problems that had big Union implications (I had fun with that one because I am meticulous).  Even though I charge them more, they were being charged for 105 hours for around 70 hours of work, and this had been going on for years so the union had problems with me changing that, but they finally seen it my way and make a good profit on it now.

Be careful, know what you are getting into and go for it. 

[Bedfordshire Oven Cleaning]

I will tell you now, most council contracts come with  an obligation of reconsigning a union.  I took one on 3 years ago and it has proven to be profitable.  but to let you know what you may be in for, TUPE, TUPE, TUPE.  I can guarantee that the union is involved in there if it is council  I had 6 employees and 5 were a member of the Union, it was two unions but officially you only have to recognise one I think.  But be prepared to talk with a bullpoopter that knows what they are talking about.  If your ducks are not in order they will eat you up.  The cost of joining the LGPS (local government pension scheme) is not cheap.   I had to pay for actuator fees of 1400 GBP and then I had to pay a bond (I am a small company) of 8000 GBP which I had put up by a company and it cost me 1200.   The original bond they asked for was 80,000 GBP and you have to put up a specific argument to get it lowered which, if your situation is the same I will talk to you about. 

But I can not stress more than enough, the law says you can not take over a contract without offering the current employees the job with a few exceptions.  1.  If the job is carried out by the owner of the company currently servicing the contrat (a small company as you are planning to do).  2.  The current employee has been there less than a year (you will still need to do TUPE due diligence and take them on but pretty easy to get rid of later if necessary).  3.  The current employee work at the site is less than 50% of the employees total work (some HR companies will say 70%) by that company (they work other sites).  If there are empolyees there, there will always be some type of TUPE implication and you better be aware, and you better be aware of the cost of LGPS.

Now saying all that I have 95 hours per week, and the council was charging 8.92 per hour, but the place paid for cleaning equipement and chemicals.  I charge 9.20 per hour and had to fix problems.  I talking big problems that had big Union implications (I had fun with that one because I am meticulous).  Even though I charge them more, they were being charged for 105 hours for around 70 hours of work, and this had been going on for years so the union had problems with me changing that, but they finally seen it my way and make a good profit on it now.

Be careful, know what you are getting into and go for it. 

Well said that man.

Kind of what I was trying to say but with a more personal experience on Gilberts part.

[alisonh21]

hi

starting to get bit worried now, the lady i need to speak to is on holiday till 16 jan, i have been told that the contract may go to tender if they think ts worth changing for a better price, all i know about the employees in the building at the min are both of them are part time 4 hrs each and that they are not employeed by the council but by a agencie, dnt think our council employ staff of their own any more its better for them to use agencies, does this make a difference if they not employed by council

alison

[Denise l]

Yes big difference which is good news for you. If they are agency staff they are temporary and you have no T.U.P.E worries.

D

[Gilbert Sprous]

I have not heard of council using agency workers as this is not very cost effective.  They do use them to cover long term sickness so be a bit careful.  Now it might be a new one though.  I know there are new regs for agency workers that start this year but I am not sure what they entail.  Good luck and if they are promising no TUPE then I would get it in writing.

[alisonh21]

hi denise

i have read somewere that agencie workers are not covered by tupe as well, im just hopping this is right, i should have more info after the 16 jan when the boss is back from holiday so im keeping my fingers crossed,
think this new thing for the council to employ agencies but im not sure what the benefits are but i will find out im sure,
thank you for all the advice and ill update when i have more news and hopefully it will be good 
alison