Recently my parents have twice now been 'verbally badgered' into providing tips to their dustmen.
They live in the back end of nowhere in a quiet lane shared with a handful of other properties.
They hardly create any rubbish - most organic stuff they compost themselves and anything burnable like cardboard goes into the log burner. What little they do put out for collection is in a wheelie bin which they have to drag over their gravel driveway to the road.
All the refuse men have to do it take it to the back of the lorry and the truck does the rest. My parents are pensioners and dont earn a wage. Clearly the dustman DO earn a wage so its not a hobby and its not as if theyre having to do any extra work just because they've driven out into the sitcks to perform what is afterall a pubilc service.
My dad made the point that he doesnt tip his doctor, or the bus driver, postman or anyone else for that matter, so where do refuse men get off in thinking they're worthy of being tipped just for doing their job?
please don't try and get around the swear filter - thanks
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 18 Jul 12 at 15:37
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we used to drop em a dollar at crimbo
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I don't, I spend at least 1/2 an hour a week sorting the rubbish out for them so they can chuck it in a landfill somewhere, on top of that I have to drag or carry wheelies about a 100 yards to the top of the lane to save them reversing into our cul-de-sac, they also leave a horrendous mess in the village chucking bins and boxes willy nilly all over the place, They should be tipping me for saving them work.
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>> I don't, I spend at least 1/2 an hour a week sorting the rubbish out
>> for them so they can chuck it in a landfill somewhere, on top of that
>> I have to drag or carry wheelies about a 100 yards to the top of
>> the lane to save them reversing into our cul-de-sac, they also leave a horrendous mess
>> in the village chucking bins and boxes willy nilly all over the place, They should
>> be tipping me for saving them work.
>>
ok victor meldrew... rant over?
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The things is, dustmen aren't on a particularly low wage are they? not like waitresses who often rely on tips to make their money up.
And the fact the blokes are making hints at wanting a tip is what did it for my mum & dad. You tip because you want to or because you've received particluarly good service. You should't be coerced into doing it because of the mumblings of some Hi-Vis wearing wheelie bin dragger!
I jokingly suggested my dad just leaves them a xmas card saying thanks.
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No I don't tip them. I do all the hard work in dragging it to the kerbside, they do naff all other than leave my bin anywhere they like in the road. Stuff em.
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No.
I never got a tip in my career (other than 'get a haircut' or 'your driving is dangerous').
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i dont tip them anymore, i chuck it all down the rubbish chute , block of flats you see..... but bread scraps go to the pigeons who live on the train station roof....im a karma ist
same applies to you as well - re: filter
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 18 Jul 12 at 15:39
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>>i dont tip them anymore, i chuck it all down the rubbish chute<<
Have you had any good fires lately beekeeper? when I lived in a council phlat we were were always setting light to the blimming thing.
Naughty though I believe.
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Well, I was thinking back to about 1960 :)
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>>chucking bins and boxes willy nilly all over the place
Ours are very tidy indeed, bins and boxes are left where they were put out. Although I know that this isn't the case in all areas.
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I must admit that the only time the CS family tip the dustman is when he has to take away a heavier load than usual. But credit where credit is due, I cannot recall any instance where such a fellow has even hinted that a tip (or Christmas box) should be given, and have certainly not heard of 'verbal badgering' from my neighbours.
I do know that Mrs CS gives the newspaper lads and lasses, and the postie, a tip at Christmas, but I guess the poor dustman is forgotten because he doesn't actually make it to the front door.
However, I would be annoyed if my nearest and dearest were hassled.
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The only tip I would give 'em is to actually put the recycling into the truck and not kick it into the gutter when it falls out of the wheelie bins onto the road.
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I did once tip a binman a fiver, but he took away piles of stuff - cheerfully.
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I tow the bin a couple of hundred metres to the road, and a nice man (though may be a women - I've never seen him/her) comes along in a truck with a big arm on the side. This comes out, grabs the bin, weighs it, reads the chip, then tips it in the side of the truck. He doesn't even get out the cab.
If I leave the bin with the chip pointing away from the road, he doesn't get out to turn it round so his machine can do it's thing, he just leaves it.
And there's no culture of tips here, so no, he doesn't get anything. I assume that when I pay the bill for the rubbish collected, the company concerned give him a cut.
Last edited by: Dave on Wed 18 Jul 12 at 14:54
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They were well paid while unionised and working for the Council. Not sure they are once contracted out.
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Ours have a habit of leaving the lids wide open when they've emptied them.
Presumably to indicate they've been? Damn annoying if it's been raining though.
My neighour who is in her 90's, who's had several strokes has (via her carer) asked them several times to close the lids, but they still leave them open.
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We have 4 separate collections, green/paper/glass/general. Tipping would cost me a bomb.
They're pretty good, though, do the job well and rapidly so they get get to their second careers, I suppose.
I give Billy the milk a tenner at Chrimbo and he comes in for a coffee and a chat on some of his money collection days. I consider him, like Steve the post, extra eyes in the area while I'm still in bed !
The paper boy...no way. We're the first on his round so he spends 5 minutes on the doorstep reading my copy. On the last three weekend cancellations, first he delivered all three days as usual, didn't on the second two occasions but left someone else's Times and Grauniad on one of the days. He often gives us the wrong paper, meaning I have to ring the shop for them to drive round and swap things around with some other poor unfortunate.
I'd tip the tram drivers...but they won't stop at the end of the garden !
Ted
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When we had Tin-bins, and the Dustmen used to collect from and return it to our back yard, I used to Tip them handsomely! Nowadays, Ive to drag the bin to the road end myself, collect it myself, and adhere to what it may contain, and the times its allowed to be on the "public Highway". As I do all the work, the "Hostess" commandeers the Tip!
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I used to tip the dustman and when we used to have the milkmen.Stopped tipping they earn a wage, and I also have to drag the bin to the right place.I could do with a tip!
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>>I could do with a tip!
Now, what's that one about shoelaces and revolving doors?
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It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
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The average refuse disposal operative's income is undoubtedly a great deal more than our combined pensions, so NO, is the answer.
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Agree Roger we have to look after the pennies.
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As ours pick up the recycling and the black sacks before 6.30 am, we never see them.
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Councils should return to black sack collections in certain areas. Some of the terraced properties, particularly around the inner city streets, look an absolute eyesore with multiple wheelie bins and boxes in their front gardens.
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The bin men in our area are performing their duties working for a contractor. Because they work on bank holidays and other public holidays so no working day is lost, they get exceptional bonuses. The main work is done by householders bringing out and taking back the bins themselves.
All the bin men have to do is hook each bin up to a haulage mechanism on the vehicle and then put the bins back on the pavement. A long way off what it used to be like before modern technology...:-)
You will have gathered that I don't give them tips... They are merely doing their (well paid) jobs.
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Our Council looked into changing from the sacks to discover that 10 sacks could be chucked in the lorry in the time it took to empty two wheelie bins - so much more effective to stick with sacks. Our only problem has been recent with a new cat in the lane who has discovered the joys of rubbish night - they come so early we have to put sacks out the night before. The cat then laid the bags open to the foxes and other vermin at this rural end of the lane. Most householders are now putting rubbish sacks into a bin and this has not been forbidden yet!
Last edited by: DeeW on Wed 18 Jul 12 at 18:50
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Another reason is that even in my rural idyll binmen don't want to get stabbed by needles left in bin bags. Wheelies are safer, and less prone disgorging their contents across the place, ripped apart by foxes/rats/cats and herring gulls.
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I am sure the soliciting and acceptance of tips by the dustmen will be against the council policies and their terms of employment.
If my parents had been 'verbally badgered' in this way I would contact the council and ask them to remind their operatives of the council policy.
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If my dustman asks, ill give him a tip.
It will be 'stop leaving the bin in the middle of the footpath and return it to where I left it and stop throwing the plastics box on my flower beds, you lazy twit'.
Im not sure whether they want a tip from me, but they are available on request.
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...I am sure the soliciting and acceptance of tips by the dustmen will be against the council policies and their terms of employment...
A council employee at a tip near the caravan emptied the CC3 for me when I was hobbling badly.
He refused my offer of a pound or two.
I took this as a challenge and at my next visit took a jar of Nescafe and a pack of chocolate digestives for their on-site bait cabin.
The items were gratefully accepted.
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I think I may have posted this before, but as its once again on-topic it may serve as a reminder!
One bin day I put our wheely out for emptying, (ontaining two black bin bags of rubbish), most of the other houses had also put theirs out, including one that had stacked three extra black-bags on the top of theirs. After the bin men had been, I went to collect our bin, only to find that the extra bags had been lifted off the bin, and instead of being thrown in the wagon, had just been chucked down in the street for the random access of Dogs and Gulls.
I went in, phoned the council and gave them a bit of ear-ache over lazy, jobs-worth bin men!
The next day, a waste van and two crew arrived and removed said bags. The next week I received a letter from the council, with a photo, showing two bags in-situ, one of which had been opened and was showing an envelope addressed to me at our address.
It appears that someone possibly the owner of the three extra bags, had opened our bin, removed our bags, and put their three extras in our bin!! leaving us to pick up the blame as the littering scoundrels!!
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Very fair of you iffy. Wasn't a postie or a binman fired for taking a tip ?
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...Wasn't a postie or a binman fired for taking a tip ?...
Could have been, from memory the man at the tip said something like: "We're not allowed to take any money."
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Why do they want tips for goodness sake, it's a very well paid job for what they actually do.
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No we don't tip since the days when they use to come and fetch the tin bin. But like everybody else we have to sort into the green wheeliebin, the grey one, the black box and the black basket or whatever and then cart them all to the gate ourselves.
They have on occasion left a bin unemptied because the lid was slightly raised. Of course that might be becasue they haven't been tipped!
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Wouldn't tip ours. As others have mentioned, the bin is often left in the road, or outside a neighbors house.
The food recycling bin was smashed up the other week, and I suspect that was down to it being thrown back onto our drive after being emptied
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>> They have on occasion left a bin unemptied because the lid was slightly raised.
That's probably the rule set by your local council. Ours is the same.
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> They were well paid while unionised and working for the Council. Not sure they are once contracted out.
> Why do they want tips for goodness sake, it's a very well paid job for
> what they actually do.
From web job postings they seem to minimum wage jobs = 6.08 per hour, though many may be on better deals TUPE'd over from the public sector.
> Because they work on bank holidays and other public holidays so no working day is lost, they get exceptional bonuses.
You sure about that? Most low cost operations that have to work all days (think multi country call centres) just bump up the holiday allowance by 8 to make up for UK bank holidays, then restrict the number of staff that can take holidays on any one day. i.e. no bonus at all.
Personally I'd only tip if they did something exceptionally good and would certainly make a fuss if they tried to manuipulate anyone I knew.
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I must be the only one then = £10 at the winter solstice, done it for 15 years now inc. chrissie card.
Wouldn't do it if I still lived in England though.
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A few years ago I had to give a taxi ride to a dustman from the council yard on Chrimbo Eve (or thereabouts). They'd divvied up the "tips" at the depot - he had with him a heavy-duty recycling sack containing his equal share of the spoils... Must have been 100 cans of lager/cider in it, along with a couple of £5 tubs of chocolates and a few bottles.
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In response to the TheManWithNoName.....I would sprag them to the Council, well out of order badgering an older couple.
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"sprag"? Good word, not heard of it, Google tells me it's a gear part, or in the urban dictionary, used in phrases such as "this sprag insulted me".
Is it Welsh slang for "dob in" or similar then? Ought to be in the "things people say" thread.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Thu 19 Jul 12 at 08:16
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>> "sprag"? Good word, not heard of it, Google tells me it's a gear part, or
>> in the urban dictionary, used in phrases such as "this sprag insulted me".
>>
>> Is it Welsh slang for "dob in" or similar then? Ought to be in the
>> "things people say" thread.
>>
Sprag is Australian slang for confront or accost aggressively.
Found on www.probertencyclopaedia.com/brow
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In France there is (as usual) a law about this. If your refuse collectors work directly for your local council they are allowed to ask for tips at Christmas but, if they work for a contractor (Veolia or whatever) they are not allowed to solicit.
The first Christmas we were here there was a knock on the front door one Saturday and I opened it to see two men I vaguely recognised. One said 'English'? So I said 'oui'. He them rummaged through a bunch of cards in his wallet and held one up for me to read.
It said 'Hello. We are your dustbin men. Merry Christmas!'
Turned out he had equivalent cards in Dutch, German and Spanish...
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Do you tip your dustman? - zookeeper
