My job as utilities technician involved the day to day running of a fast paced consumer goods plant. There were a number of shortcomings with the role at the plant working for Veolia. Firstly, as a utilities technician my role involved lots of walking. On occasions I was walking 10 miles a shift, with the average around 7 miles. Veolia supplied me with the most ridiculously clunky boots I've ever seen, let alone wearing. They were made by Rockfall and supplied through their supplier Direct Corporate Clothing. The boots weighed 2.1KG in a pair and were like two concrete blocks. There was zero give in them, and resulted in me eating painkillers for fun. I am currently awaiting an appointment with podiatry to have both my feet repaired after wearing them for 3 months. Although it was unknown to management, I knew other colleagues and previous employees had similar issues, which resulted in podiatry appointments. No other options were available is what I was informed, even though they were supplying another technician with boots recommended by podiatry. The role also involved mechanical maintenance which involved alot of work whilst kneeling. The trousers I was supplied from Direct Corporate Clothing were that of a waste operatives. There was no pockets for tools, nor was there pouches for knee pads or anywhere for kneepads to go. Imagine working on your knees for hours without kneepads while the 3D management sits in a cosy office in their trainers. The 3D is not because the management is 3 dimensional, it's because they dictate, delegate and disappear. No other options were available in the Direct Corporate Clothing brochure and no other options given to me. If was very much take it or leave it. The plant which had a major issue has needed to ramp up production to 24 hour to meet supply because of a machine failure, which had I not of tendered my notice a few weeks ago, would have resulted in me working overtime at the rate of time and a half without my shift allowance. Which would have meant my overtime was worth 25% more than what I'm normally paid. I must stress too, that despite being told by management that it's standard practice for companies not to pay shift allowance on overtime, the client's employees all get shift allowance on overtime, as do all the other Veolia employees on the site. My contract was different. Unfortunately for Veolia, I didn't sign a contract to cause injuries or ailments or become involved in modern day slavery. The salary and shift allowance wasn't great to begin with, but the overtime rate was insult to injury. The tools made available to me were also of poor quality, this resulted in me using my own for a while. Until I obviously realised that new tools weren't going to be made available to the technicians. Not even as much as a torch was supplied.
