270,000 Civil Service Workers To Strike For 2 Days

Old_Slaphead

StevieJ wrote: »

Not if they work in the taxation dept (I know much of it is automated).

Presumably they still have to retain high staffing levels to deal with all the complaints and cockups.

Mr_Falling_Star

markharding557 wrote: »

Brainless union!they are damaging the party they pay for right before an election:rotfl:

PCS are not affiliated with the Labour party and are politically independent

Oh good to see so many hard working people finding the time to post this morning slagging off others for standing up for their rights

Graham_Devon

Hey falling star. Made it over to these parts have ya?!

phatbear

of course no striking pcs members will be on here because they will be manning picket lines and attending marches etc.

Mr_Falling_Star

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Hey falling star. Made it over to these parts have ya?!

Back at ya

Old_Slaphead

lemonjelly wrote: »

:T

The private sector is supported by the public purse.
Tax credits & the like make wages up to a liveable amount, owing to the failure of most firms to refuse to pay a living wage.

I know many people on low & minimum wages and in the main, the benefit trap discourages them from putting in more effort. We try to encourage employees to 'move up the ladder' with increased training & support but though they will receive more pay many will not actually be better off so simply won't accept any extra responsibility.

Andy_L

phatbear wrote: »

Have my own opinions on the strike which I wont go into but here are some facts:

only 31% of pcs members voted at all and only 20% voted for the strike.

so given that probably only half of civil servants are in the union the actual number of people voting yes for a strike is minimal.

Even less, PCS is only one of 5(ish?) civil servant unions. The others decided it wasn't worth strike action

lemonjelly

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

I know many people on low & minimum wages and in the main, the benefit trap discourages them from putting in more effort. We try to encourage employees to 'move up the ladder' with increased training & support but though they will receive more pay many will not actually be better off so simply won't accept any extra responsibility.

The private sector is profit motivated. Nothing else comes above profit. The main cost experienced by any organisation is staff wages. Therefore private industry will have its main focus getting costs (wages) to the lowest possible level, & charging the highest possible price for their goods/services.

If we paid a decent wage, the benefit trap wouldn't exist, as wages would & should be more than sufficient for people to live on.

ILW

lemonjelly wrote: »

The private sector is profit motivated. Nothing else comes above profit. The main cost experienced by any organisation is staff wages. Therefore private industry will have its main focus getting costs (wages) to the lowest possible level, & charging the highest possible price for their goods/services.

If we paid a decent wage, the benefit trap wouldn't exist, as wages would & should be more than sufficient for people to live on.

And if benefits were cut then companies would have to pay higher wages to recruit staff.

The_White_Horse

phatbear wrote: »

but the flip side is, on average, a civil servants overall pay tends to be less than someone in the private sector

hahahahaa thats funny