Shameless labour

ILW

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Our local County and District Councils have already let two thousand posts go and was recently praised by the Prime Minister for acting so promptly. Something the chair of the council was very proud of.

Did that mean 2000 actual redundancies?

Flyboy152

The vast majority of them, yes; some voluntary, most compulsory and a small proportion natural wastage.

vivatifosi

Jennifer_Jane wrote: »

I would love to hear something about the top people feeling the crunch rather than the front line services, if anybody has any anecdotal evidence (which seems to have more gravitas than 'anecdotes'!).

The problem is, that people at risk aren't going to give you anecdotes easily in case they can be identified by their employers. However give this thread a refresh in a year's time and maybe they'll be willing to talk once the changes have happened. Then the outcomes and stories will be very interesting.

IronWolf

I work for a govt department, and the cuts have fallen so far at the top, the aim being to make depts more into pyramids rather than rectangles. About 50% of our board was cut.

StevieJ

Sir_Humphrey wrote: »

I suggest you go and read up what charities actually do and how they work. It ought to be obvious that many of them would need full time staff (maybe only a handful) to organise the volunteers and that means paying people. These organisations run with money, not magic pixie dust.

Remember that these are the bodies that are supposed to be delivering the "Big Society" [sic].

I think it a cue for Nick Mason to pop in

StevieJ

Flyboy152 wrote: »

Our local County and District Councils have already let two thousand posts go and was recently praised by the Prime Minister for acting so promptly. Something the chair of the council was very proud of.

Pity it didn't include him.

Jennifer_Jane

Flyboy152 wrote: »

The vast majority of them, yes; some voluntary, most compulsory and a small proportion natural wastage.

IF these redundancies are anything like the ones that went on in my area of the private sector, we were asked if we wanted to take voluntary redundancy. So very many of us did, that the numbers had to be cut down. They could go with a very good package and for those over 50 (then), they could get their pensions without any penalties.

I certainly feel great sympathy for the compulsory redundancies of course, but it may well be that the voluntary redundancies are the majority and financially become very well off, while still young enough to retrain for other more interesting things (one friend of mine is becoming a florist for instance, something she has often thought she would like to do).

Even the compulsory redundancies seemed to be taking the opportunity for new career training and I haven't met any who weren't energised by the change.

What's left, however, is a tougher environment for those left, and a point I made when I was at work, was that the strategy, structures and job descriptions have to be changed to accommodate fewer people. I expect that that is difficult if not impossible, in the public sector, but wonder if anyone has any thoughts.

TheMoneySpider

1500 council workers to lose their jobs in Liverpool...

...and immediately walk into highly-paid private sector jobs thus not costing the state anything

...and immediately stop all un-necessary spending whilst beggining to claim job seekers allowance

What do you reckon in more likely?

And yet the banks we all own are still paying out huge bonuses to their executives. It is difficult not to be bitter. The people who caused the crisis are still living high-on-the-hog whilst low paid workers are tossed onto the scrap-heap.

There has to be another option than cut, cut, cut. Deep austerity measures didn't work in Greece or Ireland. Growth has been stopped dead in it's tracks by the cuts. Why not show some imagination and bring in stimulus packages. A worker you lay off stops spending and begins drawing benefits...a worker you keep on goes out and buys a new car.

Jennifer_Jane

TheMoneySpider wrote: »

1500 council workers to lose their jobs in Liverpool...

...and immediately walk into highly-paid private sector jobs thus not costing the state anything

...and immediately stop all un-necessary spending whilst beggining to claim job seekers allowance

What do you reckon in more likely?

And yet the banks we all own are still paying out huge bonuses to their executives. It is difficult not to be bitter. The people who caused the crisis are still living high-on-the-hog whilst low paid workers are tossed onto the scrap-heap.

There has to be another option than cut, cut, cut. Deep austerity measures didn't work in Greece or Ireland. Growth has been stopped dead in it's tracks by the cuts. Why not show some imagination and bring in stimulus packages. A worker you lay off stops spending and begins drawing benefits...a worker you keep on goes out and buys a new car.

I totally agree with you - any ideas, though, on an alternative?

TheMoneySpider

Scrappage schemes and VAT cuts got people spending. Job cuts and tax rises make the economy shrink



Pay a man to dig a hole, pay another man to fill it in.