Is this normal

[youcantspenditwhenyouaregone]

My daughter (22) has a boyfriend (21) who is a joiner. He finished his apprenticeship in October and since then has had at least 3 employers. He says it’s normal to move around jobs like this when you are trades. It seems it starts well with plenty work then the work starts drying up, he gets fed up and moves on. He doesn’t have a problem finding other work but sometimes there has been a gap of a week or so. Is it normal or is he spinning us a line?

I‘m not a tradesperson, but I know a few - including two joiners, and this sounds perfectly normal to me.

Unfortunately unless he’s self employed and works for himself and finds work himself, then it’s normal to work for a firm who maybe has a few months contract work for him, then once the contract has finished, they let him go. It may be different once he gets more skilled and gets more experience, companies may want to keep him on longer. Most big main contractors sub contract out their work so they don’t have to employ tradespeople.

Yeah, unfortunately the construction industry seems to think that they're above the law and employment rights aren't something they need to bother themselves with.

So a lot of trades are actually 'self employed' so are actually employed through agencies but have no employment rights (pension, sick pay, statutory holidays, parental leave etc).

It is possible to make a decent living as day rates can be good, but obviously there's no security and if he can't work due to illness or injury he won't get paid, so if he's got any sense, he'll be putting a good part of his income aside to cover his pension and so he has something to fall back on if he can't work for whatever reason. Plus his tax, but chances are he'll be on the construction industry scheme so will automatically have 20% of everything he's paid deducted, but he could owe quite a bit more when he does his tax return, if he's bringing in decent money.

Thanks, it’s reassuring to know it’s normal but it’s really frustrating too. This current job they started him on an hourly rate and then this week changed him to piece work so he’s getting half of what he was supposed to get. And he hasn’t been paid for two weeks now because he submitted times for hourly rate when it should have been piece work but they didn’t tell him that. Very demotivating, just hope he gets a decent job soon

Sounds normal for trades to me.

But spinning 'us' a line, sounds as though you might be a bit over involved.

Or does he live with you/owe you rent?

doesn't officially live with us but in reality he usually stays here. Trying not to be over involved but it's difficult as he doesn't have a great home background so I feel a bit more like I am parenting him too.

I'd say if he's 'getting fed up', and walking away from jobs that's not great. But on the other hand if the work dries up and his contract is finished they won't pay him to just sit idle for weeks between jobs, so will let him go. But presumably have him back if his work and attitude are good. Construction is a tough industry with some questionable interpretation of employment law.
Good builders should always be in demand though. As the sector is under skilled and understaffed.