James Lewis Recruitment - www.james-lewis.com

James Lewis Recruitment (Driving GB division)

This recruitment agency provide staff mainly within the driving and FMCG industries. I responded to one of their adverts for contract bus driving work at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. They talked it up... "Yah, you're the perfect fit for this job", etc etc etc. Myself and others had to jump through a multitude of hoops, filling out many forms - often completing the same forms 2 or 3 times as James Lewis said they hadn't received them (when they'd previously confirmed that they had). I often do contract HGV & PCV work on either a self-employed basis or through agencies, and have never needed to jump through as many hoops as with this company.

Phone calls to James Lewis staff yield vague non-answers, with promises to get back to you with information - which they never do. Staff mumble away and can barely string together a coherent sentence. E-mails are sent to you that don't make sense - words are jumbled up, and spelling, grammar and punctuation are appalling.

When it came to taking references from previous employers, at first they stated that an email reference would be fine. When this was provided, they then decided to change the goal-posts and required a signed reference to be posted or faxed to them. When this was provided, then they changed the goal-posts once again and said that the reference should also have my previous employer's 'stamp' on it. My previous employer was happy to oblige and provide a reference, but I felt that James Lewis mucked them around repeatedly in changing their mind about what they wanted. My previous employer is a very busy person and shouldn't have been messed around, having to send my reference three times, by incompetent staff at James Lewis Recruitment.

In some cases, paperwork that I’d sent them was returned to me by Royal Mail weeks later as being undeliverable!

Despite my best efforts (without wanting to annoy them by coming across as too pushy), they failed to confirm what I consider to be the most basic of information prior to me starting with them... Dates that the contract would run from and to, the hourly pay rate, who would be paying us, and when. All things that other agencies do straight away. Normally I wouldn't even start with any company until these basic details are confirmed in writing either through e-mail or letter, particularly as the rate of pay was below what I would normally work for. However, being a national sporting event I wanted to be part of it and so was prepared to accept a degree of disorganisation... to a point.

So I travelled to Glasgow to drive at the 2014 Games. Day One saw a few hours of Induction Training followed by collecting our Security ID passes and then a trip to the First Bus Gushenfaulds depot. It pretty much pettered out there, as after a 5 min walk around the depot we were asked to sign off a list of H&S that we'd (not) been over. The afternoon's initial route-learning never materialised and we were free to go home. Enquiries with James Lewis Recruitment resulted in changing goal-posts again... The £13 p/hour rate suddenly became £12 p/hour + a £1 p/hour bonus to be paid at the end of the contract IF you met their standards (which were never defined). They couldn't confirm contract dates. Pay dates were suddenly extended as we were told that our initial working days wouldn't be paid the following Friday, but would be rolled over into the following week (so we'd be paid almost at the end of the event). Then when pushed, we're told that it won't be James Lewis or Driving GB who are paying us. It won't be First Bus either. It's all going under an umbrella contract with Clipper Contracting - this is news to us. It all starts to become clear why James Lewis wouldn't commit to anything and why they were generally clueless or evasive when it came to answering questions. Day Two saw us arriving for an 8am and sitting on a wall for 8 hours doing nothing. It transpired later in the day that the computer system that we'd logged on to in the morning hadn't been set up properly, so we were not recorded as even being there that day. After a day of doing nothing (which may be for some people but not me) we went home. Despite being recruited by James Lewis Recruitment, any issues were nothing to do with them... everything was someone else's issue, whether that be First Bus or anyone else. Everything is talked up, but the reality was a disorganised mess.

The warning signs were there early on and I should have heeded them, but I quite fancied working at the Commonwealth Games so stupidly entertained this bunch of unprofessional amateurs for far longer than I should have done. I can't decide whether James Lewis Recruitment, aka Driving GB are just ridiculously incompetent, amateurish and unprofessional, or whether they're a bunch of ‘fly by night’ chancers trying to capitalise on a major event. Either way, I had no confidence that I would even see any money from them. I didn't trust them and I wasn't sticking around to work for people that I didn't trust. A couple of wasted days with this shambolic outfit can be chalked up as experience, but I certainly wasn't prepared to take the financial risk of staying there for 2-3 weeks.

With the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games opening tonight (23/7/14), and despite having informed both James Lewis Recruitment/Driving GB and First Bus on multiple occasions that I am no longer working for them, no-one has asked me to return my ID & security pass which allows access to the secure bus depot and event sites. This plus the fact that they couldn’t decide when I was actually due to start at the Games makes a bit of a mockery of all the security procedures that have been implemented. It’s just as well I’m not a criminally minded individual!