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Drayton Manor Park

I suppose the issue is two fold:
1. What kind of engineer will apply for a zero hour contract job that doesn't mention what the wage is, particularly bearing in mind that 6:30am starts aren't the most sociable of hours.
2. These days a major theme park should be giving engineers quite a bit of specific training. How much money is a park going to invest in training an engineer doing a relatively small number of hours on a zero hour contract?

I'm not saying that Drayton Manor are doing anything dangerous or that they won't give the engineer sufficient training. I don't know what they're planning. But it does sound a little concerning.
 
It is so odd. Value lost from training someone who will walk into a job elsewhere with the competition for better hours is mad. Even 15 hours a week would be so much better than nothing.
 
Zero-hours contracts are not inherently evil. However how they have been operated by some organisations in the past has been just that.

I have run banks of workers on zero-hours and they have been fantastic ways for workers to move into a field that they want to work to get access to all the training which also fits shifts in around their own needs and commitments.

They can help with folks with caring obligations of all types access work without compulsion to shift patterns they could never hope to fulfil. They are often the gateway to more formal relationships and career pathways. Similarly plenty of folks found out that their expectations of the kind of work undertaken wasn't their in reality and they were able to make alternative arrangements without being tied to a place of work. Plenty used the opportunties offered by ad hoc accessible shifts to return to the workplace after significant periods away which was sustainable in the way that "regular" employment couldn't offer.

As long as the employer is honest about the likelihood of shifts, doesn't bully the workers into attending, cancelling shifts with little or no notice - you know with just common decency - then folks can make their own minds up.

But yeah, I'm uncertain about how this would work here. Not unless there are some recently retired workers who folks know and internal industry networks could be a useful seam to mine. I wonder what the pitch in terms of salary would be.
 
Not many in the industry will be on hourly I would imagine? Most on salary so I'd imagine 40kish pro rata depending on hours.
 
ANYWAY.

If the new ride isn't open for the start of the school Summer holidays, I think it's a bit of a bust for opening this year, or at least a squandering of an opportunity and a small whimper of a soft launch. Considering this is Drayton Manor Park and Zoo, anything could happen.
 
RustyShackleford said:
Zero-hours contracts are not inherently evil. However how they have been operated by some organisations in the past has been just that.

I have run banks of workers on zero-hours and they have been fantastic ways for workers to move into a field that they want to work to get access to all the training which also fits shifts in around their own needs and commitments.

They can help with folks with caring obligations of all types access work without compulsion to shift patterns they could never hope to fulfil. They are often the gateway to more formal relationships and career pathways. Similarly plenty of folks found out that their expectations of the kind of work undertaken wasn't their in reality and they were able to make alternative arrangements without being tied to a place of work. Plenty used the opportunties offered by ad hoc accessible shifts to return to the workplace after significant periods away which was sustainable in the way that "regular" employment couldn't offer.

As long as the employer is honest about the likelihood of shifts, doesn't bully the workers into attending, cancelling shifts with little or no notice - you know with just common decency - then folks can make their own minds up.

But yeah, I'm uncertain about how this would work here. Not unless there are some recently retired workers who folks know and internal industry networks could be a useful seam to mine. I wonder what the pitch in terms of salary would be.
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You sound like you are referring to a completely different industry, not safety critical high skilled engineering,
This is without doubt a safety critical post.
Looking from a public, punter perspective, do we really want zero hours part time employees being used in such vital safety posts?
I would prefer full time, retained, long term well trained employees on engineering roles, personally.
If they can't recruit such employees, I would be concerned as a regular visitor.
Thankfully I'm not.

Edit...and it really is simple with this job post...when you read the actual job offer...they want mornings, with hours specified.
They want a part time engineer, for mornings.
Why then don't they offer a real job with part time hours, there is absolutely no need for a zero hours contract in this position.
They know who they want, for specific hours.
So why no part time contract?
Sounds like simple dodgy business practice to me, nothing more.
 
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GooseOnTheLoose said:
ANYWAY.

If the new ride isn't open for the start of the school Summer holidays, I think it's a bit of a bust for opening this year, or at least a squandering of an opportunity and a small whimper of a soft launch. Considering this is Drayton Manor Park and Zoo, anything could happen.
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They stepped up with the testing with the transfer tracks been tested but they can’t do any ride testing to they finished painting inside the station building and launch section so the scaffolding can come down. I can see it been all finished by the end of the month with testing starting after May half term.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the rides having technical problems. Apparently they've got a load of engineers on zero hour contracts that they can call in when something like this happens. They should be at the park very soon. A lot of them seem to have poor signal at the moment, but as soon as they get the message they'll come rushing in.
 
DistortAMG said:
Not complete, but there are some pictures of the figures from Jungle Palladium that went into the chip shop and lake side tea shop shows, before they were fitting into their new locations.

826_90ed386a54604a35899f860dc783c3bc.jpeg826_afb478577661a314066babbcd0c0f658.jpeg
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Can't remember which were which. The bear playing the fiddle was in the fish and chip shop though, I'm sure.
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This was on the old spaceleisure website. seems to be a retrofit of Bernie Bear.
 

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To be fair I would have saved more money having 20% on food discount. So not to pleased with this. I do not plan on renewing any time soon anyway. Obviously they have to honour previous conditions, so if you was sold a pass on the stated 20% discount, you have to still receive the 20%. How they plan on enforcing this is going to be interesting because currently they just look to see if you have a pass. A half arsed look may I add, as the staff, they don't care.
 
Bowser said:
Any updates on the state of The Wave? Was going to book our half term trip for next week but bit nervous after the recent stoppages.
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It's been operating the past two days without any issues, aside from the long loading times. I presume that you'll qualify for Drayton's RAP though, so it shouldn't impact your visit too much.

Even if The Wave isn't up and running at its full potential, I would encourage you to book the visit. There's still lots for you, your family and your son to go on! Stormforce 10 is great, Thomas Land (if he's not too old) is a bit of a hoot, Accelerator is a lot less trimmed than Velociraptor, The Haunting is a fun madhouse and you've got the other bits and bobs too.
 
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