When Paul McHale’s mobile phone rang one cold, Scottish
afternoon, he assumed it was a joke. Three weeks later, the
experienced machine operator was starting a new life in New
Zealand as part of a post-quake clean-up operation. Mark Anthony reports.
The
Demolition-Jobs.co.uk website – which allows
demolition workers to advertise their availability for work free of charge - was created just as the
recession’s jaws clamped around the UK economy. In the past four years, it has grown to become a
popular and reliable source of both workers for jobs and jobs for workers.
But even in their wildest dreams, the teambehind
the website never envisioned it enabling individuals to travel halfway around the world.
And yet that is precisely what happened to Paul
McHale, an experienced excavator operator who had been plying his trade in his native UK when a life-changing call arrived on hismobile phone. “I was working in Peterhead in Scotland for Keltbray. I was driving back to work after a weekend home and got a phone call froman American called JimCoghlan, a human resources
recruiter working for Ceres Environmental. I had a hands-free phone unit but the call just seemed so unlikely, I immediately pulled up to speak to him. He askedme if I would be interested in going to New Zealand to operate a Caterpillar 385 high reach excavator,”McHale recalls.
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“At first, I thought itmight be a wind up but asked himto sendme details of the job. That was on 19March. Jimcontactedme almost every day by phone or email. I had to send a list of jobs I had worked on and reference for three companies I’d worked for. Two weeks later I had given and workedmy weeks’ notice with Keltbray. I arrived in New Zealand on 3 April, just three weeks after getting the first phone call.” McHale reports that his bold decision to relocate on the other side of the planet has been richly rewarded. “It has been a really good experience. The equipment Ceres has is first class, and the work has been non-stop since I arrived. The package I have inmy contract is very good; they even flewmy girlfriend down instead ofme going home so I could have two weeks holiday to go around the south island,” PaulMcHale concludes. “And it’s all thanks to the Demolition-Jobs website.”
Demopedia: The 2010 Canterbury earthquake was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck the South Island of New Zealand at 4:35 am on 4 September 2010 local time. Aftershocks continued into 2012, with some causing significant additional damage. The strongest to date - of magnitude 6.3 - occurred on 22 February 2011. Because this was centred very close to Christchurch, it was much more destructive, with 185 people being killed. Ceres Environmental is an international disaster recovery company specialising in disaster relief, demolition, and construction. It assists international governmental agencies, as well as, private clients. Ceres has successfully managed more than $2 billion of emergency contracts, including projects with FEMA after Hurricane Katrina through to supervising multiple debris recycling operations for the Government of Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
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