With effect from the 1 October 2010, the new minimum wage rates will be as follows:| 16 & 17 year olds | £3.64 ph |
|
18 - 20 year olds
|
£4.92 ph |
|
Over 21's
|
£5.93 ph |
Maria Hantig, our Site Manager at St Anns Shopping Centre in Harrow, went over and above the call of duty recently when she found herself stranded in Romania during the recent airline disruption caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Having taken leave to visit Romania, Maria was due back to work early Sunday morning but found herself 'grounded' when she tried to leave on Friday.
By way of alternative transport, Maria left Romania at 1200 on Friday, by coach, from there she travelled to Hungary, arriving at 2000, then onto Austria managing to get there at 0400 Saturday. Maria went on to arrive in Germany at 1200 and Belgium at 1600 - all by coach!
Once Maria arrived in France at 1800, she got a ferry across the channel arriving in good old England at 2100 Saturday.
After that marathon journey, Maria managed to turn up for work only 10 minutes late!!!
Well done Maria!! That's what we call dedication!
On the 31st March Olive Sutton retired after 22 years working at Charter Place, Uxbridge. On the 16th and 17th March we held the 9th Annual Managers Meeting for Chris Dickens' region.
24 Managers gathered at Botley Park & Country Club from as far north as Chesterfield, Yeovil from the west and Dartford in the east.
The two-day conference included the Managing Director's address, a suppliers seminar, discussions with Head Office departmental managers, a quiz and annual awards to the staff including, Broken Disc Award, Loo of the Year Awards and Manager of the Year - joint winners: Janet Stephens and Carlos Barreiros.
"It is extremely important that we all get the opportunity to meet each other and be able to discuss matters that are important to us. Sharing experiences and finding solutions to problems through discussion is just one of the benefits of this conference." said Operations Director, Chris Dickens. "Dougland value our staff and realise that it is the people at the 'rockface' that make the Company as successful as it is."
"Looking around this room I feel immensely proud," said Managing Director Barrie Richards, "this is what it is all about - people with similar jobs and responsibilities, who would not normally get the chance to meet, sharing problems and helping each other out."
Next year will be the 10th Annual Meeting and Chris will be organising something special to mark the anniversary.
Dougland's current cleaning contract at Brighton Marina, which commenced in March 2007, has just been extended further from its original term from the 1 March 2010. Our Client there is "extremely happy" with our service delivery and stated that it was an "easy decision to make".
This recent success, comes hot on the heels of two other contract extensions. At the very end of 2009 we were informed by Victoria Coach Station that our contract, which we have proudly held since January 2002, will be continued for a further period from January.
And more good news - our work at the prestigious National Archives, has been rewarded by a further extension of a number of years from April 1st. We have now been carrying out cleaning services at the National Archives in Kew since 2000 and we are delighted to be able to continue our work there.
Well done to all our staff who have contributed in giving our clients the confidence in Dougland to continue to deliver professional and consistent service levels.
On the 1st January 2010 Dougland will commence a new Trolley Management contract at Castlepoint in Bournemouth. The contract involves 18 staff, including a Full Time Trolley Manager, who will be responsible for circulating the trolleys from around the various car park locations to ensure there are always plenty for customers in the trolley bays outside the stores in Castlepoint. We will also be collecting 'stray' trolleys that have found their way to bus stops, housing areas, etc.
Another part of the contract will be the maintenance and repair of the trolley fleet so that visitors to the Centre will always be able to find a trolley for their shopping needs!
Dougland are delighted to add the Sovereign Centre in Weston Super Mare to their portfolio as from the beginning of November. Situated right in the centre of the town, the Sovereign Centre is a very busy shopping mall featuring some of the biggest names in the British retail scene. Dougland are proud to provide the cleaning and related services to this Centre.
Dougland can now confirm that as from October 29 2009, our management system has been assessed and we are now fully certified as meeting the requirements of ISO14001:2004 for the following activities: The provision of cleaning and related services to shopping centres, airports, local authorities and industry.
The last six months has seen a steady flow of new business for Dougland Support Services.
We are delighted to announce that the beginning of 2009 has brought us significant success in the confirmation and commencement of new contract awards around the UK.
We started 2009 with a brand new image that is more reflective of the modern, innovative approaches we bring to the cleaning industry. Launched in January, our new logo and design style has been applied across all our stationery, business cards and website, and will be rolled out across our vehicle fleet over the coming months.
Once again we brought together all our Site Supervisors and Site Managers from around the country to one venue, for a two day conference. This enables the individual Site Managers to meet their opposite numbers, who may work in the same environment, working alongside different shopping centres, or may be from a different industry entirely: industrial, commercial or leisure. They have the opportunity to meet the executive and management team, enjoy guest speakers, attend training modules, workshops, demonstrations of new technology, equipment and materials. All of this goes to build an exceptionally effective team building experience, where problems are shared and solved together - a key component of our continual improvement programme.
Gloria Hawes, Dougland's first ever employee, started with the company in 1969 on our first contract at the Job Centre in Havant, a contract we held for 28 years. Gloria was a foundation stone of the Company and has continued to be a major part of the Dougland Team since the early days.