‘I was treated like scum’
Monday 23rd August 2010, 2:29PM BST.
Longue Hougue recycling site in St Sampson's.
A MOTHER-OF-FOUR is demanding action after a Longue Hougue scavenging yard worker allegedly snatched a TV out of her hands.
Nicci Ogier, 35, said the worker treated her like ‘scum,’ throughout the incident and said the rest of the island should know that employees were getting first pick of items.
Miss Ogier said she spotted a flat-screen TV and had her hands on it when a worker came and took it off of her, saying ‘Tough, I am having it’.
A department spokesman confirmed that Miss Ogier had contacted them about the incident and said they regretted she felt site staff at Longue Hougue had, in her words, ‘spoken to her like she was dirt’.
‘It was explained that the matter had been dealt with in accordance with normal procedures.’
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Let’s get this right:
Goes poking around at the yard, doesn’t like the fact the rules don’t allow her to take a TV, makes a complaint.
Sounds like my 3 year old daughter: Dad says no to request fo new toy, daughter cries and tells Mummy to “Talk to Daddy please”!
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WTF? Y it’s a broken tv??
Plenty over here left in lay-by’s
Desperate people!
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As a regular I find the lads helpful and polite. Of particular note is the chap Pinchmain; I got a fish tank off him for my gerbils.
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Who says it’s a broken TV?, most of the stuff “dumped” there is perfectly servicable. The emphasis is on recycling and re-using
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Why is it always Guernsey named women whining in the GP. If they aren’t allowing their kids to run into barriers in the parks, they’re having fights in scrapyards.
Should all the Ogier’s, Gaudions, Le Patourels, de Garis and anyone with an ‘Le’ at the start of their surnames go on anger management courses?
The birds in this dinky little island seem all a bit wacko!
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If this woman scavenged the TV in the scavenging yard it seems a bit unfair if a States worker has pinched it off her. If they were volunteers, perhaps they would deserve ‘first dibs’, as it is the site is not there for their personal gain. If he was rude as claimed, he should at least get a formal warning about his behaviour. There is no reason to expect the TV doesn’t work, I remember a news item a few month back where a man and his son both picked up nice, completely functioning flat screens there.
PS Why does This Is Guernsey use an annoying spellcheck that nags me to misspell everything in American?
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tooxar, I think your answer is in your post. “Guernsey Post”, It’s a newspaper about Guernsey, funnily enough!
They are very rude down there, and yet it’s out taxes paying their high wages!
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As a regular at the yard i’ve never noticed any problems in fact the guys there go out of their way to be helpful.
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My goodness, what an overreaction – it’s only a spat over a dumped telly. Miss Ogier complained to the Department, they dealt with it – just because she evidently didn’t like the outcome of her complaint there’s no reason to go bleating to the GP. I wonder what “action” will sate her sense of outrage? Summary dismissal of the offender, or perhaps a public flogging?
This should never have reached the pages of the GP.
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Oh and by the way, so what if the employees are getting first picks on the gear? Fair play to them I say – it seems like a fair enough unofficial ‘perk’ of a job that I can’t imagine people are queuing up to do.
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wasn’t this the same site that someone was sacked from for selling on goods after getting them for “themselves”? I have been down there a good few times a week and there are quite a few occasions when you see the guy ask who ever is in the car what they have then the next minute the item is round the back. Yes i agree perks of the job but there is only so much stuff you can take home so what are they doing with the rest it has to be sold on!!! If the lady had the item then it should be hers no ifs no buts. Not for staff to then come along and try and snatch it from you. If the states are that concern tho they could place cctv down there to see exactly how much the staff are taking as each individual staff member they should be declaring it like everyone else – payment in kind. If i was given something in my job I would have to declare it to my employers who in turn have to provide a list to the GFSC each year. The states cannot be that different!! can they??
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Ill bet my months wages that tv was broken!!
certain posters on here need to get out more!!!
may be the recycling dump!!!
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I’ve always found the guys here at the recycling yard very helpful. They sometimes have to work in very bad conditions too. This is just a perk of the job as all jobs have
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I have been down there a few times and it seems the same scavengers are dowm there permanently, do they ever go home?
It can be quite off putting when they come around you when you have not even had time to open your door.
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It’s funny down there, as soon as your car stops they all gather around like pigeons over crumbs to see what will come out this time. :)
But I have to agree with the dude who said about winging women…, it is really just nonsense. Go get a job, and then you can buy yourself a flat screen TV instead of making this bizarre hassle about something that is really just pigeons fighting over crumbs. C’mon!
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Yep
Many Stigs of the dump down there. I get the impression this woman is looking for a business or fool who will compassionately stump up a nice 52″ LCD because they feel sorry for her loss.
The first time I went there to offload a few items I was extremely put off by the rodents. They made me feel quite uneasy by their space invader desperation to lay claim over my load.
Some have such a look of curiosity on their faces it makes one wonder if they are expecting pots of gold to be offloaded by somebody who thinks it’s brass.
I have heard many say the same about the recycling rats. It’s as though they have got a first come first dibs fever.
I would not be surprised if there is a fight sometime soon over a few old packets of batteries that might have some life left in them.
I am one of the many that still use the facility but would rather drop off when the gates are locked & avoid the vultures.
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This is an utterly pointless story.
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If it is their job to run the site, they should not be taking anything from it for themselves. Otherwise there is a conflict in interests, so making the whole point of the site where the public are free to re-use others unwanted items into a scam… It needs to be sorted or there will be worse to come.
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Bridge: This is an utterly pointless story.
Not really, if a public sector worker whose wages I pay had been rude and, in effect, stolen from me I would not be happy either. Nor would you, if you were honest.
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Oh for…..
oooo… I pay their wages….ooo….They work for me…..ooooo….bleet, bleet, bleet.
Please islanders, get over yourselves. you pay your taxes. The worker probably gets what £15k for what they do. All of Guernsey contributes £340m ish. His salary is something like 0.00004% of the tax take of the island. Presuming your tax is evenly spread over the spend of the island (which is about the same as that taken) means that if you contribute £15,000 in income tax (do you?), you pay around 6 pence of his salary. So you can tell him what to do for about 30seconds of his year.
Idiots (that’s you who think you “pay their wages”)
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Billythefish, do you understand what a ‘principle’ is? Thought not. Ooooo – look how grown up I am, I can do sums on a calculator and be rude to people for the sake of it. If you have nothing sensible to say why not leave it to the adults.
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Beanjar, apologies – it’s just that I’ve read the same drum being banged on sooooo many different threads, usually incorrectly, that I finally lost my rag over it!
You were just the proverbial straw – the camel apologises
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@I have been down there a few times and it seems the same scavengers are dowm there permanently, do they ever go home@
The ones I’ve seen are either council house tenants or eastern europeans, the former usually on the sick
Probably taken home found not to work and then fly tipped. Council tennats are known as fly tippers where I’m from as gypsies and travellers and catholics.
Does the girl ogier with 4 kids live on benefit?
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Wow. To all the ones calling it sad and bleeting. You can be sad enough to bleet on here, so whats your issue. There should be stipulation that workers of the site do not get first pick, as it defeats the object of recycling to the public. Who knows if the employees are making money out of the stuff they keep, which could be doing a family of limeted means. Not all people are able to work, either with families at home, or on low income. So for the well off. yes go and get your t.v from the shop, but dont knock the not so well off.
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If someone can make a few pounds out of doing up and selling on stuff taken from a scavenging yard so be it. Whether or not this woman is on benefits is neither here or there. I find the idea of scavenging on waste sites rather distasteful and I would rather use the reCycle site or the auction rooms for any secondhand goods I might want.
As for the workers getting first dibs – so what? At the end of the day the rubbish is there to be tipped – so who cares if they get to it first.
This woman unfortunately gives all Guernsey womanhood a bad name, and I agree that there are far too many harridans being “outed” by the Press at the moment.
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bobby, a couple of points:
- The workers at the site are members of the public too, so why shouldn’t they also have the ability to participate? OK they have an advantage but so what? They’re hardly paid a fortune to work down there; in fact I’d venture to suggest some of them are the people with limited means you speak of.
- I imagine many people only dump their goods down there because they can’t be bothered to make the effort to sell them. If you’re observant, you’ll see the same thing goes on with Ecycle – people take free stuff off there then sell it on. If any memeber of the public is making a bit of money on the side from scavenging then selling goods on, what’s the problem? I don’t begrudge them – it sounds like entrepreneurship to me and neither illegal or immoral. Let’s face it, they’re hardly going to get rich doing it are they?
- I don’t have an issue with people trying to get free bargains from the recycling depot, we’re a family of “skip rats” ourselves and have been known to grab some bargains. I’m not knocking the less well off either.
In my opinion this story is petty, one sided and not in the public interest. I’m not interested in people’s personal spats with the recycling depot any more than I am if someone complains about poor service at a restaurant.
I’ll say what I said about a previous story – when people go public with their private complaints they much expect public comment. People are entitled to give their views on the story – from both sides of the coin. Naturally, you are equally free to disagree with them.
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Sarnia Expat, perhaps its time you become a Sarnia Export if you can’t see anything wrong with States workers bullying and being rude to legitimate users of the Scavenging site.
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I was down at Bulwer Avenue the other day dropping off an old fridge when a lady asked me if I could help her remove a large TV from her car boot
She said I was welcome to have it as it worked perfectly except that the volume knob was stuck on maximum
Well,I couldn’t turn it down
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The yard is a brilliant idea and helps so many people save money. Before this people paid for this kind of service (unless you know how to get around it)
If one guy was a little “blunt” i doubt you can describe it as being treated like scum!
If you dump your items for free you don’t still have any claim on it after it leaves your hands. If someone wants to use/fix it after how does this affect your life? So what if the staff get the first opportunity? Go down and hang out there for the day and you will also.
Keep it up guys and just remember some people might need a bit of politeness and smile!
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Actually Donk has done a good job of sumarising this one. Was she REALLY treated like “scum”? Or did the guy merely have already decided to reserve it, turned to do something, saw her, quickly said “sorry love, I’ve bagged that one” and she got the hump?
Even if he said “Tough, I’m having it” that’s hardly scum talk!!
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the guys down the site are exellant, they have helped me lots everytime ive been down, they have held things for me so i could go home an remove some seats from my car so i can take the item if i needed the space. so what if they have the good stuff 1st, working in the rain, freezing cold, gettin filthy, paid peanuts, i wouldnt do that. some of the guys take the goods home an pass them on to people they know that needs the items and has not got transport, i know as ive seen it for myself, so leave these guys alone they do a god dam hard day of work each day an get paid badly, think about it, wouldnt you if you worked there!!
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Ray
Brilliant….
When I was down there I was attacked by a dog…… It was a cross breed!
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Good work, Ray.
I managed to find a perfectly serviceable bread maker down there the other week.
I was chuffed to bits to pick it up for free – I’d always wanted to buy one, but never had the dough!….
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Beanjar
I don’t condone anyone being bullied by any worker, States or otherwise – but I wasn’t there, so I can’t comment on who/what was said.
As for feeling like scum – well darling, no one can make anyone feel like that – this woman obviously has a large chip on her shoulder.
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for those of you who don’t hang around the dump I should explain that there are quite well defined groups:
rooters
baggers
squeakers
snatchers
Nicci is a bagger but she has to understand that the workers there are rooters. A rooter has the right to claim items from baggers, much as baggers can claim from squeakers.
If this was a bagger vs bagger claim or rooter vs rooter claim then quite rightly the claimant would be demoted to snatcher, but by the lady involved making a claim against her better she has now been demoted to squeaker.
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Danno – as a keen student of the social sciences I’m curious – does that make Peter Sirrett the alpha male?
Perhaps you could explain to us the complex interactions between these different social groups?
I wonder if we could get David Attenborough over to do a documentary on this strange pack behaviour? Some free publicity?
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Ponderous
My poor old Grandfather was chuffed to bits too.
He fell in front of a steam train
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Danno,
that post is pure class ! I haven’t laughed so much for ages.
Cheers
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Well. As most of you are saying this is petty, why has this warranted such a big response?
I do believe the workers, should have some perks to there job. I think they do a great job, and its a wonderfull service they provide. However. If there is cause to expose, an unfair practice, then that also should be brought to light. As most things that concern the states departments. These things are seldom resolved, and swept under the carpet.
Maybe its not someone being petty, but someone who has been miss treated??
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Can I just say Tooxar
I think you are very rude stop running down females. So what if Mrs Ogier is on benfits she has 4 children to look after. Longue Hougue scavenging yard is there for all to go and look and maybe pick up some items.
There is always to sides to every story.
Think before to run down others.
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Sarah
I thought that looking after children was the responsibility of the parents, not the state?
I wonder if the father/s make any contribution, or are they on benefits as well maybe? It anooys me (and many other earners) to see the hundreds of pounds that I pay each month in social security going to single mothers and workshy layabouts who would have no problem in getting a job if they weren’t so lazy.
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This has turned into a character assassination of the victim of this incident, hardly fair is it?
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i have been reading all the comments on this article and it seems to me a lot of them make assumpsions that the lady involved is on benefits, whether she is or not isn’t the issue,she is allowed to be down there, the recycling yard is for everyone regardless of status, people drop things off there to dispose of them in the hope that someone else may have a use for it, whoever picked it up first should be entitled to keep it regardless of who they are. i feel that a lot of the comments here are only interested in insulting or abusing other peoples views, they aren’t interested who is right or wrong.also if the lady feels she was mistreated she is entitled to complain, or is that right only availlable to a select few
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I agree with you on one point, Geoff – this has got nothing to do with social status or benefits – totally irrelevent to this topic.
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@hardly fair@
Neither is running to the press with the workers having no right of reply. Can’t take it don’t dish it girl!
@There is always to sides to every story@
Yer yous prob right. If the boys had run to the GP the headline would be. Mental Bird kicks off over knacked TV
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Rather enterprising I’d say. No need to be rude to the scavengers however.
If the site and it’s employees efforts can make a return from any of the goods (or bads) then I’m all for it. If a product is perceived to be of value then it is likely to be treated as such and ultimately last longer, the benefits of which need not be explained. Perhaps a system whereby any profits are returned to the department to fund similar schemes, with a commission paid to staff, would work better – undoubtedly some red tape would inhibit such a sensible idea.
Anyhow, regardless of any money making ideas couldn’t the problem simply be resolved by only permitting staff to ‘take stuff round the back loike’ once the gates have been shut to the public? Simple I know
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Phil
Can I say I understand as I work full time and yes there are alot of people out there who do claim which we work for them to stay at home. what I was saying is that is that Mrs Ogier wanted a TV which I understand are alot of money.
Geoff
I agree this has nothing to do with being on benfit and that this yard is there for all to us and maybe pick up some items that others do not want least this way it’s not left on the road side.
Tooxar
What do you mean if I cant take it don’t dish it girl??
I was putting my point across just like you I sais I didn’t think you where being fair about us female breeds. Im not the one who went to the paper was I.
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Hey Sazz was talking about Oggy Ogre, not yous ma luv. Fancy a date?
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Heeelllooo tooxar you talking to me?? lol
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CAN THE MEMBERS OF STAFF FROM THE RECYCLING YARD PLEASE STOP POSTING ON HERE. YOUR ARGUMENTS ARE ILL THOUGHT THROUGH AND PETTY. THANKYOU.
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I think this is all getting a bit silly now – I don’t think the article suggested she was on benefits!
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Barry
1. Don’t shout!
2. Justify your accusation!
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I go here quite often with family, we look around and we have had things from there that have been very nice, it is also a useful place.
The people who work there are known to be nice and helpful.
It isn’t great to here this either.
Always think about others.
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I find it rather amusing how the upper classes within the finance sector enjoy earning big bucks from sealing ‘deals’, will quickly run screaming to their local lawyers if another company beats them to the chase.
Working class Mum beaten to a 42″ Plasma TV at Longue Hougue to feed her family= benefit scrounging layabout.
Investment Manager beaten by a competitor in a deal to finance new their Sun Seeker and loosing out on commission= Hard done by victim who must use our infamous legal system to fight the injustice of their terrible loss.
You just can’t make this up!!
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Just while I’m thinking about it what about insider dealing in the local finance houses? Of course as no one has been convicted by the GFSC it obviously doesn’t happen!
Insider dealing at Longue Hougue recycling site by SWD manual workers? How common. Fancy having to do a job like that and sinking so low!
Insider dealing by finance workers? What a jolly little number! Something to giggle about with the girls while ordering the Veuve Clicquot at Laskas.
Double standards by the blinkered Guernsey Upper Classes? Never!
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Phil – spot on. Twice that I’ve agreed with you on various forums now. Becoming a habit.
Beanjar – character assassination of the “victim”. Wasn’t character assassination of the states employee what Ms O set out to do? Isn’t she the the same “victim” who had a full page article in the Press a few years ago bleating how she had been victimised by the legal system because she had been banned from driving for 12 months as a result of having an uninsured vehicle on the roads?
Victim or paranoid system player? We get a lot of the latter in our school playground.
Been down to LH this morning to get rid of a wide variety of stuff and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful – as ever.
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If it is the women i think it is then she has more than likely over-reacted. I burped in front of her once at our old work and she flipped out, storming out the staff room calling me disgusting at the top of her voice !!!
As for the yard well ive seen people who are well known to the local auction rooms taking stuff from the yard and then putting them up for auction. If you dont want people doing this with your stuff your taking to the dump put a hammer through it !!
As for Rachaels comment near the top of the page, well your gonna say the staff are great there. If your the rachael i think you are your Dad works there !!!
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Bungle, no you’ve got the wrong rachael. My dad definately doesn’t work there.
I just meant it as a genuine comment, never had a problem there and the guys have always been nice.
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This is typical of life in Guernsey today. Too many live here thinking they are so important. Makes me sick. This island is seriously an island of Guernsey no more, just another part of the whining UK, full of self important people who got nothing better to do than moan because they think they something special.
In this case, an appology should have been enough, and the matter dropped. What next? The court of human rights to lodge a complaint??
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Ron:
I think Guerns moan and complain more than your average UK resident. That’s just my impression.
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Beanjar:
Hello Beanjar. You pay their wages?
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Truth Man
Starting with you :)
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