Friday, a calculator and a disagreement
Your gangs are on price work: a rate for erecting, a rate for striking, something for alterations and extras. On Friday the owner goes through the job sheets with a calculator. One gang lead says they also did the loading bay on Tuesday. Another says the strike on Thursday was bigger than the sheet says. Nobody is lying. Nobody wrote it down properly.
The figures get agreed eventually, with some give on both sides, and payroll runs late again.
Why price work pay is contentious
Price work is a good system when the work is measured clearly. Scaffold job sheets rarely measure it: they record the job, not the quantity erected or struck, and alterations and extras are often not on them at all.
- Job sheets record the site, not the quantity of work.
- Alterations and extras are not recorded per gang.
- Rates are in the owner's head or an old spreadsheet.
- Splits between gang members are worked out separately.
- Gang leads cannot see how their figure was reached.
What it costs
Owner time each week and friction with the people you rely on most. Overpaying when a gang's claim cannot be checked, or underpaying and losing good scaffolders to firms who pay reliably. And price work rates that never get reviewed, because nobody can see what each job actually paid.
There is also a hidden incentive problem. When the only record of a gang's work is their own claim, the gangs who write the most get paid the most, which is not the same as the gangs who do the most, and the good ones notice.
The price work calculation we build
- Your price work rates are set up by work type: erect, strike, alteration, extras, on whatever basis you use.
- Quantities for each job come from the quote or loading list and are confirmed by the gang lead when the work is done.
- Alterations and extras recorded on the gang lead's phone are priced at your rates for that gang.
- Work split between gangs, such as one erecting and another striking, is recorded per gang.
- Weekly figures are calculated per gang, and per person using your split rules.
- Each gang lead sees their week's figure with the jobs and quantities behind it, and can raise a query before it is finalised.
- Agreed figures go to your payroll person or package, and the pay cost is added to each job for costing.
| Work recorded | Paid at |
|---|---|
| Erect quantity | Your erect rate |
| Strike quantity | Your strike rate |
| Alterations | Your alteration rate |
| Extras fitted | Your extras rate |
| Day work | Your day rate |
Rates, splits and the basis for pay are your agreements with your gangs. We calculate from them and show the working.
What Fridays look like after
Gang leads see their figures as the week goes, not as a surprise. Queries are about a specific job, raised early. Payroll runs on time. And because pay cost is recorded per job, you can see whether your price work rates still fit what the jobs earn.
The owner gets Friday afternoons back, and the conversation with a gang lead who thinks something is missing becomes a look at one job together rather than an argument about the whole week.
Is price work like this for you?
- Price work is calculated by hand each week.
- Gangs dispute their figures regularly.
- Alterations and extras are argued over.
- Your rates have not been reviewed for years.