Posted By Liz Johnston We, a South London Borough, have a number of vacancies for safety advisers. Ideally we are looking for NEBOSH diploma qualified advisers. If anyone is interested in further details please contact me direct. Alternatively if you are not diploma qualified yet, or are part way through diploma or NVQ and are interested, again it may be useful for us to discuss further. If you have the NEBOSH certificate but much experience again we may be able to work something out. I hope I don't seem to desperate, but the quality of applications we had to recent adverts was poor. Any sensible suggestions welcomed!! Liz

Posted By David Fellows As Nigel quite rightly points out remuneration is important however, so is place of work. I would not even consider a position <15k above my present remuneration in the south. In my area there are dozens of fully qualified experienced professionals for every post.

Posted By Lewis T Roberts Come Come Nigel and David, that's a bit harsh. I have always said that you can't do enough for a good employer Lew

Posted By paul miles Dear Liz, I would be interested in your vacancy, perhaps you could phone me on my mobile on Monday 2nd Sept after 10am, my number is 07733298302. I have the NEBOSH cert,chartered institute of environmental health certificate and over six years h&s experience and I am current;y working in my county council as a risk assessment officer. Paul Miles

Posted By Paul Craythorne I spent 4 1/2 years working for a Local Authority and had many contacts across the region in other authorities. They are notorious at asking for heaps of qualifications and experience but only paying peanuts. They have difficulty in understanding why they only receive applications from candidates that are not suitable. I left Local Authority for the private sector 7 years ago and have more than doubled my salary in that time. The positions they offer are suitable for young newly qualified people or someone looking to spend their last couple of years before retirement in a laid back environment with no stress. I wouldn't even consider working in London or the South East for anything less than £50k and even then I would have my reservations. No chance of this with Local Authority!!!! Paul

Posted By Nigel Lusby John, I believe that Paul was referring to his individual salary expectation as opposed to joining the fray as an arbiter for national wage scales. For me it is regrettable that frequently an important issue such as the package range on offer is omitted in the advertisement. I am also alarmed that applicants commonly seem to misconstrue directions placed by the advertiser, with the resultant scroll of personal information being placed on the open site. Though I guess this may be of interest to the advertiser in determining whether the applicant is capable of either identifying pertinent instructions or carrying out a simple IT function. Either way some directional guidelines by IOSH might be appropriate on these issues? Regards Nigel

Posted By Harry John Just how many Safety Officers do you have in your Authority if it would cost each Council Tax payer £300 a year to give you a payrise? Harry

Posted By Paul Craythorne Dear All, I received a private e-mail from John Murphy with regard to my comments on this topic. He appears to have taken some offence about the comments. I have reproduced my response to him below in order to clarify what my original posting was aiming to say and to make other members aware that I was speaking from some experience on this matter. Dear John, I do seem to have touched a raw nerve here!!! As you are aware, I spent 4 1/2 years in Local Authority doing a professional job like you and your colleagues and being paid an absolute pittance by comparison to someone in the private sector. I was more qualified and more experienced than some of the Environmental Health Officers I was expected to train. Myself and two other H&S Officers spent 2 years fighting the Council to get a parity of pay but it was quite clear that this was never going to happen. Two of us therefore decided to leave the employment of the Council and have never regretted the move. The other one is still there earning a lot less than us. If you read between the lines I was not deriding the ability of the H&S Professionals working for the Local Authorities but the Local Authorities themselves for paying exceptionally low salaries and expecting the very best people to apply for their vacancies. The salaries are suited to someone just starting out or coming to the end of their careers. Anyone who has anyhting about them would need to get into the private sector to earn what they are worth. I am sure that you and the vast majority of other H&S Professionals in Local Authority are doing a great job. Isn't it about time that the pay reflected this!!! Hope you are now less offended. Regards, Paul Craythorne If anyone wishes to view the e-mail John sent to me then please request this by private e-mail to myself.