The Public Sector Cuts - Anyone worried?

Bigcammy

I've had good and bad experiences of Unions, including going on strike many years ago when I worked for BT and that strike was, in my personal opinion, a complete waste of time and money.

I've also sat on the Management side dealing with Unions and I found it extremely unpleasant and divisive. I found some of the Union reps to be sensible, decent blokes, but others were extremely aggressive and combative and were simply outrageous in their demands.

I'm no longer a member of a trade union, but I wouldn't rule out joining again if I worked for an organisation where I felt it better to be in one than not.

bingo_bango

Like I said Stevey, it's those who have had experience of dealing with unions who can come on and criticise. I can't, and wouldn't back the union up on every matter as I don't agree with all of their policy or decisions. It's the generalised comments about the inadequacy of unions that I find galling.

I'm another (unpaid) local rep, and I have to listen to all sorts of complaints from local members on an almost daily basis. I can sympathise with your friend who is a rep, as I know just how frustrating it is to have ineffective officials 'working' for you. It's not a high horse I'm on here, but those type of undirected and badly (if at all) researched comments from some posters appear to tar us all with one brush, when both you and I know that is not necessarily the case.

belfastgirl23

I've had very good local level support but don't really feel that the senior union bosses in London have a clue - have not been impressed by some of their policy decisions and stances. But still feel that we need to support our unions/

icelandic_queen

I too have had good representation from my union. When the redundancies were announced the union made sure everyone got what they were entitled to and kept not only the membership fully informed but also the general workforce. I suppose there are good and bad examples in this situation. I don't think a strike is an option when redundancies are definite, but it is up to the union to ensure that the company, either public or private lives up to it's legal and moral obligations!

x12yhp

I do not think that the public in general have a particular 'beef' with either the public sector or the unions. The problem comes when the purse strings are being tightened, the private sector is going to suffer (and has been doing so for some time now), people in general are suffering so there is limited sympathy for union demands for 'more' because the reality is that every bit 'more' they achieve is a bit less for someone else.

As long as their is a general acceptance that the public sector needs to make massive savings then OK. But if the message is simply that the unions are 'not standing for these cuts' then people will be angered by it.

miss_duke

x12yhp wrote: »

If I was a good, hard working public sector worker, I would be putting my head down and doing my best to be noticed for doing a good job instead of putting my head up and being awkward. Discrimination laws are great things but you could be sacked for that inappropriate email you sent... you try proving it otherwise! In hard times I would rather not risk it...

This is what I am doing.

x12yhp

miss_duke wrote: »

This is what I am doing.

Well I cross my fingers that it works out for you :beer:

NASA_2

I think everyone should be worried to an extent but there isnt really much we can do to stop what is happening.

Most of the jobs will go through natural wastage, they might then move on to voluntary redundancy, I think it is unlikely that they will go to mandatory redundancy in the civil service at least in the short term.

In the civil service I would rather see things like flexible working scheme being withdrawn before mandatory job losses. I get the impression this would save quite a bit of money. No matter how many SAV checks are carried out some people are allowed to get away with stealing time (Which really is stealing money). No-one has anything to fear from a 9-5 job IMO.

Robothell

I work in Health and am an unpaid union rep. The shortfall to DHSSPS is likely to be substantial and will undoubtably hit an already cash-strapped health service hard. Compare to England, Scotland and Wales where health has been protected from further cuts. The budget for DHSSPS actually covers social services and public safety (eg fire service) as well so NI always looked like it had a higher budget per person than elsewhere in the UK. This was a falsehood as the budgets elsewhere were purely for health. The worrying thing is that, for the first time ever, NI is actually below the national average spend per capita for health budget.

The realities are that we are going to see lots more jobs lost in the public sector (we've exhausted our supply of voluntary redundancies here), lots of private sector losses as a result and the closure of GP and hospital services across NI. The only alternative is removing a free health service. Neither option is in the best interests of the most vulnerable members of our society.

Sad times.

labhras

he who works and does his best goes up the road like all the rest