The Sunday Times today says most public sector workers are getting pay increases

Cleaver

ILW wrote: »

Guess the problem is that I have spent most of my life in a sales environment where you are only worth your last set of figures. How long you have been there means squat if the new guy comes in and sells more than you do.

How would you deal with a profession such as nursing?

lostinrates

ILW wrote: »

I would agree with payrises for increased productivity or profits, but not for doing no more than was done the year before.

Guess the problem is that I have spent most of my life in a sales environment where you are only worth your last set of figures. How long you have been there means squat if the new guy comes in and sells more than you do.

Surely aquired skills mean that commission is likely to be higher as skill at selling increases. I think thats why basic plus commision works in sales. It might not be practical in other settings, where there is no direct profit or more team based fee earning.

Running_Horse

I just took a 10% pay cut in the private sector to keep my job. We were probably overpaid, but that next pay packet is going to hurt. Support public sector workers striking to protect their perks? I'll get back to you on that.

vivatifosi

Where I work there are no pay rises (nor have there been for the past 2). Yes, you can rise increments, but this is changing to be performance-based: no satisfactory ranking, no increment. Tbh that seems fair to me. However the big changes are removal of weighting and weekend up-rating of pay. If you are on a low-wage and work weekends that could be a reduction of about 8% in salary at a time when you haven't had incremental rises for two years. This is for low-paid but frontline jobs and it will hurt. I am already aware of people who will have to leave because it will push them out of the ability to pay transport, or childcare. Most of these are not unionised, either through disinterest or because they see it as an expensive extra.

People do need to realise that there isn't a one size fits all approach to salaries in the public sector and how well you fare depends on a whole host of factors including which government body you work for, seniority, etc.

Graham_Devon

This isn't a pay rise.

It's a contractual uplift.

The pay scales were created by a private company bought in to negotiate NHS contracts, so it wasn't a public sector decision.

If you work in a part of the public sector that links pay scales to length of service, your contract allows you to move up a band for each years service, dependant on appraisal and performance.

The pay rise part is a percentage based cost of living pay rise on top of the banding.

There are 9/10 bands, can't remember off the top of my head. As soon as you hit the top band, you only receive cost of living pay rises.

pqrdef

ILW wrote: »

Guess the problem is that I have spent most of my life in a sales environment

Well "problem" is your word not ours. If we're looking for a truly parasitical sector, we need look no further. People can buy what they need without being sold it (at their own expense).

ruggedtoast

Most public sector jobs have a number of pay scales. Which pay scale you start off on depends on how much your salary is, which is in turn determined by how much the employer wants you to come.

Unless you really screw up or there is a pay freeze, you go up a grade each year until you hit the ceiling scale for your grade. On an average salary its usually about £600 increase per year and there are roughly 4 scale points for each grade.

On top of that you get whatever increment the employer is offering for cost of living increase.

I started off on the top of the scale for my job, which puts me on the low end of average for the private sector equivalent of what I do, with no bonus obviously. That will never go up.

In the Spring one of my colleagues who worked three days a week left. I have had the entirety of her job dumped on me. I am also willing to bet that the output of 30 minutes of my working day is about 11,000 times more useful for the UK than an entire month of the person who originated this thread.

My cost of living increment was 0.5% last year, so if it makes you feel any better I am not exactly sucking the country dry.

ILW

pqrdef wrote: »

Well "problem" is your word not ours. If we're looking for a truly parasitical sector, we need look no further. People can buy what they need without being sold it (at their own expense).

How would anybody even know that a product existed without salespeople?

Not every company has millions to spend on advertising.

I still see no reason for an annual salary increment if one has not increased their value over the year.

Cleaver

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The pay scales were created by a private company bought in to negotiate NHS contracts, so it wasn't a public sector decision.

Yes it was, the Department of Health decided to go with Agenda for Change and the payscales. I'm sure private sector companies were involved in its creation, but only under instruction from the NHS itself. Why would a private company get to say how the NHS pays its staff?

ILW

Cleaver wrote: »

How would you deal with a profession such as nursing?

A nurse should be able to justify why they are worth more this year than they were last year.