Time and Material (T&M)

 Trust Values commitment conscience conciseness
Just like cleaning, do it all do it correctly and do it efficiently.
Charge the actual amount for the job.
Leave with nothing left to do unless changes are requested later.
Emergency calls, unless caused by damage, are a result of the failure by workers to do the job properly.

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BC Code of Excellence

Inside Electrical Workers Collective AgreementMay 1 2023 to April 30, 2026 42LETTER OF UNDERSTANDINGBC Code of ExcellenceBY AND BETWEEN:CONSTRUCTION LABOUR RELATIONS ASSOCIATION OF B.C.ANDINTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS LOCALS 213, 230, 993 & 1003The BC Code of Excellence is a program designed to bring out the best in British Columbia IBEW members and contractors and demonstrate to our customers and our industry that BC IBEW members: •Exercise safe and productive work practices•Perform the highest quality and quantity of work•Utilize their skills and abilities to the maximumThe BC Code of Excellence is to convey a strong message that BC IBEW members will:•Arrive to work on time, ready and willing to work.•Follow appropriate employer and customer work rules.•Promote an alcohol and drug free workplace.•Work in a safe and healthy manner.•Give eight (8) hours work for eight (8) hours pay and ensure supervision has been notified when we need to leave the workplace.•Respect management directives that are safe, reasonable and legitimate.•Respect the customer’s rights and property.•Respect the rights of our coworkers.•Utilize the skills and abilities we have learned to gain a competitive advantage.•Take care of the Employer’s tools and equipment as if they were our own.•Refuse to condone any act of property destruction, including graffiti.•Start work on time, work until the appropriate quitting time and limit break periods to the time allowed. •Use the proper tool for the job while maintaining personal responsibility for our tools.•Perform personal business, including cell phone use, during authorized break periods only.•Never participate in job slowdowns, disruptions or activities designed to extend the job or create overtime.•Always strive to conduct ourselves in a way that promotes a positive image of the IBEW.The BC Code of Excellence is also to convey a strong message that Management/Supervisors working with IBEW BC Members share responsibility for these shared goals with focus on the areas of: •Management responsibilities to the collective bargaining agreement.•Total acceptance of supervisory positions and related responsibilities.•Communication and cooperation with the Job Steward.•Employee encouragement but, if necessary, fair and consistent discipline. Inside Electrical Workers Collective AgreementMay 1 2023 to April 30, 2026 43•Job safety, health and sanitation needs or requirements.•Ample job layout/directions to minimize down time and maximize employee productivity.•Availability and timely delivery of necessary materials.•Proper number and type of tools and equipment to ensure job progress.•Maintenance and upkeep of tools and equipment.•Storage and protection of Employer and employee tools and equipment.•Employ adequate number of employees to perform efficiently or, conversely limit number of employees to the work at hand. ___________________________ Bidding
In order to get a permit there must be a value determined for the job to select the permit fee from the Permit Fee Schedule.
Some contractors doing a T&M job just wait until the job cost has added up on its own and get a permit later. Some may even charge for a permit they never actually purchase and tell you that you are lucky because the inspector never came. They can get away with this more times than they get caught and the penalty is only double the fee.
The permit costing is the first step that sends the job into a bid job. In order to bid a job that is not new construction the contractor has to assume all worst case scenarios. If the contractor is billing for all his hours (as he should) he must consider the travel time to the job, the liasing with the customer, the waiting for the customer to finish (hopefully finish) changing their minds, the existing installation, what might be already incorrectly done or hidden. The time spent while the customer (who's time is free?) stands around an yaks about the job and his dog... The contractor then must determine the best way to do the job while often not being able to determine existing conditions until the job is actually in process. He needs get a value for material again not knowing for certain what the method for completing the job will be used or even what any particular material will actually cost the day that it is purchased at the wholesaler. The material might not even be available at the first stop and and trips to many wholesalers and possibly and change in design material may need to be accounted for if originally planned materials are not available.
While the job in process as more is discovered about the existing conditions of the building, things may get better or worse. It is common to discover problems with existing installations that must be remedied. These problems change the value of the job and should be charged as extra cost. ( permit value may become incorrect)  If the customer says "its not in the budget" the contractor must make it safe but might not get paid?  It is also common for the contractor to find more efficient ways to complete the job and clean up problems as he progesses through the existing installation.
So the customer has a bid amount. The contractor may find that job can't actually be completed for that amount. The contractor may find a cheaper way to do the job. The customer now relieved at having a number for the value for the job now seems to think that they have all the time in the world to hang around and chat and even to continue to change their minds as though no matter what they think up the job will still cost the bid amount. As the contractors time and material costs come closer to the bid amount but the job is still not near completion, the contractor must do what he can to earn his living and not wind up doing the job for free. He will start to cut corners wherever possible. (Finding this later is the kind of thing that makes it cost more for the next contractor)

The customer will get crappy work and still pay the bid amount. -- The customer loses.

If the contractor discovers something about the job that allows him to complete it at less cost to himself, the customer still pays the bid amount. -- The customer loses.

Bid amounts are often requested by organizations who have a company "housewife" on staff. These people have titles such as Planner, Strata Chair, Designer, Maintenance Technician... The common practice is to get three bids and choose the cheapest.

This system costs the company:
Wages to someone to choose the wrong way to do the job.
A certainty that the company will pay too much for the work they get done.
( Consider IT staff that actually work as sales people for the software manufacturer, they keep each other employed while only causing a company problems and losses due to constant unreliability)

Payment Schedule
If the job is simply done as time and material, the customer quickly becomes much more aware of the cost of their time spent "chatting" and the cost of planning how to do the job by the "housewife". Much time is saved as the electrician already knows the most efficient and productive way to do the job.
The job _must_ be inspected.
If  defects are found in the existing electrical or other systems they _must_ be corrected.
The correction of defects is not an option dependant on budgets. The law states that the defect shall be made safe.
The corrections _must_ be paid for. (Again, the T&M system handles this better.)
If the defects were found on a bid job, the defect can be detailed, corrected at T&M, billed, permitted, and inspected as a separate job. Chargebacks due to changes and deletions from the originally bid job may be credited to the new T&M job.
In A Nutshell