Call To Cut 1 Milllion Public Sector Jobs

doire_2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8400790.stm


Huge public sector job cuts urged to ease debt




At least one million public sector jobs should be cut to ease the public debt, according to the Reform think tank. The centre-right group says the NHS and the police service should be among the areas hit hardest, having previously enjoyed big workforce increases.

Reform also attacks government and Tory pledges to protect front-line jobs, saying those make up the majority of public sector posts and must be cut.
Unison union said the financial sector should pay more towards the deficit.

The three main political parties have suggested holding back public sector pay rises, but have not proposed widespread cuts to public sector jobs.
"They prefer to talk about making efficiency savings and trimming back office functions," says BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins.

He says many politicians will fight shy of promising to make redundant the people taxpayers see delivering public services.

But Reform argues that "the public deficit cannot be reduced sufficiently without tackling the front line".

It says public sector employment costs need to fall by 15% - equivalent to one million jobs, and saving £27bn a year - to eliminate the government deficit in coming years.

Reform director Andrew Haldenby said: "Politicians have to be more honest with the public about what needs to happen if they are to reduce the deficit. Radical change won't happen if they see their role as the defenders of the status quo.

"The public sector workforce has to shrink to become as productive as the private sector. This must be an essential part of the plan to reduce the deficit that Alistair Darling should announce in his pre-Budget report."

Unison spokeswoman Mary Maguire said cutting public services was not the answer to the huge deficit.
"What Reform needs to do is go back to the drawing board and find a way to get the bankers, financial institutions and tax avoiders to pay their fair share of taxation," she said.
The chancellor delivers his pre-Budget report on Wednesday, when he is expected to confirm annual borrowing will top £175bn.
The government has promised to halve that figure within four years.

On Monday, Gordon Brown said overpaid public sector workers would be "named and shamed" in efforts to deliver more value for money in public services.
The prime minister said "efficiency savings" would help to save £12bn over four years - £3bn more than planned in the Budget.

zygurat789

The report also singled out the NHS and front line staff which just goes to show they have no idea wehat they're talking about.
My OH works in the NHS seeing patients in the community (not a hospital) not only have they had no extra staff over this period but they have suffered reductions and reorganisations to pay for the ever increasing and largely useless management to be installed in posh city centre offices.
Staff morale is very low and my OH is in despair.
Yes the Civil service needs to be cut
How about
HSE
Recruitment services
House of commons (subsidised) restaurant
The Parole Board

Any More suggestions

ukcarper

By coincidence I was out with friends last night. Two of their wives work for local movement one has lost their job and the others is under threat. so it looks like its started already.

Primrose

If the government hadn't spent the past ten years building up the public sector to its current massive level, we wouldn't find ourselves now having to cut it back. One of the basic fundamentals of good management, whether in the private or public sector, is the constant review of staffing levels to ensure that you constantly operate a lean but efficient organisation. Over the years, the public sector sadly, has become neither, and now its employees are going to pay the price for that incompetence. The irony of it is that those people being made redundant will be receiving redundancy pay which will amount to a MASSIVE cost, further increasing government indebtedness. So it's doing to be a doubly whammy.

zygurat789

Primrose wrote: »

If the government hadn't spent the past ten years building up the public sector to its current massive level, we wouldn't find ourselves now having to cut it back. One of the basic fundamentals of good management, whether in the private or public sector, is the constant review of staffing levels to ensure that you constantly operate a lean but efficient organisation. Over the years, the public sector sadly, has become neither, and now its employees are going to pay the price for that incompetence. The irony of it is that those people being made redundant will be receiving redundancy pay which will amount to a MASSIVE cost, further increasing government indebtedness. So it's doing to be a doubly whammy.

I don't think that unemployment will come entirely from the public sector.
Your vitriol, therefore, applies just as much to the private sector

Old_Slaphead

zygurat789 wrote: »

I don't think that unemployment will come entirely from the public sector.
Your vitriol, therefore, applies just as much to the private sector

There's been no overall net job losses in the public sector although that's starting to change. Jobs have actually increased from 5mill to 5.8mill since year 2000.

Much of private sector is now lean-and-mean having cut back on over 1 million jobs in last 2 years. Many private employees have had to accept pay freezes, cuts, reduced working, loss of pensions etc.

Much of pain has already been felt it's now public sector's turn. Morejobs growth needs to be created in private industries and this is now where funding (if available) should go at expense of excessive government bureacracy and wastage.

zygurat789

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

There's been no overall net job losses in the public sector although that's starting to change. Jobs have actually increased from 5mill to 5.8mill since year 2000.

Much of private sector is now lean-and-mean having cut back on over 1 million jobs in last 2 years. Many private employees have had to accept pay freezes, cuts, reduced working, loss of pensions etc.

Much of pain has already been felt it's now public sector's turn. Morejobs growth needs to be created in private industries and this is now where funding (if available) should go at expense of excessive government bureacracy and wastage.

What I said

ruggedtoast

Even within government departments you can have one floor working their backsides off doing important work with too few staff and too little budget, and the floor downstairs sitting around spending all day on ebay and hotmail.

I worked in just such a department - I was on the ebay floor and my girlfriend was on the running around madly floor.

We were indeed restructured and redunded. Unfortunately the PS tends to be useless at restructures. They spent a fortune on manangement consultants, cut a lot of people who were essential - some of whom they had to hire back as contractors for twice as much, and seriously damaged efficiency in the key areas.

abaxas

My understanding was that most local goverments were moving towards 12/24 months contracts.

Easy to hire, easy to sack. Better for everyone, providing the employee can save for a rainy day.

lemonjelly

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Even within government departments you can have one floor working their backsides off doing important work with too few staff and too little budget, and the floor downstairs sitting around spending all day on ebay and hotmail.

I worked in just such a department - I was on the ebay floor and my girlfriend was on the running around madly floor.

We were indeed restructured and redunded. Unfortunately the PS tends to be useless at restructures. They spent a fortune on manangement consultants, cut a lot of people who were essential - some of whom they had to hire back as contractors for twice as much, and seriously damaged efficiency in the key areas.

Spot On.

I know of a housing association which restructured & made redundancies just under a year ago. Their plan was so bad it ain't true!:eek: Criticism of it was rife, yet the management didn't listen, went ahead with their plans, treated staff appallingly, & jobs were lost.

At the same time, new management layers were constructed, & the managers moved upwards, getting a £10k-£20k a year rise!:mad:

Less than 12 months on, 2 of the managers who did the restructure have gone under mysterious circs (possibly jumped before pushed?) & they are restructuring again.

It is management where the number of cuts need to be made imo. There are managers who are so useless I just don't know what I'd do with them, & they're in ridiculous comfort zones

ruggedtoast it is so true that you have sections who work ridiculously hard & are so overwhelmed it isn't true, & next door are a team doing nothing save look on facefook. I moved into a college & everyone tried to prepare me for the enrolment period, saying how mad & chaotic it was. Pah! It was like an average monday in the voluntary sector.

Some have forgotten what hard work is.

bitemebankers

It's funny how many people buy into the right-wing myth that there is a problem with public sector spending. The report linked by the OP was produced by a right-wing think tank, the SOLE remit of which is to protect the interests of the rich. Of course they want to make cut-backs in the NHS - none of them use the NHS, and they're far less likely to be victims of crime, so they don't give a toss about the police either.

That the economy is in a mess now has nothing whatsoever to do with public spending, and everything to do with massive financial mismanagement at a national and international level. We should NOT be paying for this though cuts to services that WE have already paid for!