Public Sector Pension Strikes – A JOKE !

Moby

bilbo51 wrote: »

If you got your head out of the sand for long enough to read the report I posted, you would know that the figures showed that public sector pay has been in advance of private sector pay since at least 1997.

Long enough for you?

...and if you 'got your head out of the sand' you'd see that this point has already been addressed. I posted a link to an article in the Guardian about a week ago. Comparing like with like is virtually impossible.

I find it quite sad that some people have a need to villify public service workers. Doing so is not going to improve your pensions is it!
As for the country can't afford them ....total rubbish! We found the money to fight in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. We are the 4th or 5th (depending on which measure you use) highest spending country for defence and armaments. Trident is being renewed etc etc. Where there is a will there is a way! Its about priorities!

fredandwilma

I've read some of this thread but not all. I'd say its fairly predictable, the comments which will have been made. I find it all utterly boring, the public sector strikes. Frankly, I don't give a **. The whole country can come to a standstill, for all i care.


No one can ever " expect " anymore. It doesn't matter what you signed up for, its all about adapting, in today's climate. Whether you work in the public, private sector, or are self employed, you are lucky you have a job and / or pension. For that matter, you should be thankful you are in receipt of benefits, if this is the case. We are all having to take pay cuts or pension cuts, in order to to continue in employment. We live in a soceity of greed and selfishness. We are all obsessed by money, to some extent, for whatever reason. Sometimes its beneficial to take a step back and become a glass half full, kind of person. I took the advice of a colleague, who always sees the positive side of everything. For instance, you have gone to work and earned £5. My gut reaction is, my integrity has been " shafted ". I'm worth more than £5 a day. My colleague would say stop moaning. You have earned £5 more than if you hadn't gone to work in the first place.

Maybe we should all take a leaf out of this book, and be thankful for what we have.

bilbo51

Moby wrote: »

...and if you 'got your head out of the sand' you'd see that this point has already been addressed. I posted a link to an article in the Guardian about a week ago. Comparing like with like is virtually impossible.

I find it quite sad that some people have a need to villify public service workers. Doing so is not going to improve your pensions is it!

I haven't got the time to trawl through 30 odd pages of vitriol to find a post you made about a week ago. The fact of the matter is that for roughly the last 15 years, public sector pay has been (according to figures published by a named public sector worker) ahead of private sector pay. End of. Whether you care to believe it or not is frankly of no interest to me. And if you are aiming your public service worker vilification comment at me, I defy you to find anywhere where I did that.

2gorgeousgirls

dshart wrote: »

Yet so many of the public sector workers who post on here are happy for new entrants to be offered these new conditions that they themselves reject. The say this on one hand and then they proceed to say we should all unite and support them. I am afraid that people who post like that are only concerned for their own well-being and do not really care about others.

I don't agree. I feel if new entrants are offered a contract with the new terms and conditions then at least they are aware of what to expect. The problem, as far as existing public sector workers are concerned, is that we signed contracts which included certain terms and conditions which the Government are now trying to change to our detriment.

WhiteHorse

Pension calculations aside, the simple fact is that the public sector is bloated. Many public sector jobs don't exist and never did. The era of three-men-on-one-broom is over.

Interested_Taxpayer

2gorgeousgirls wrote: »

I don't agree. I feel if new entrants are offered a contract with the new terms and conditions then at least they are aware of what to expect. The problem, as far as existing public sector workers are concerned, is that we signed contracts which included certain terms and conditions which the Government are now trying to change to our detriment.

You are absolutely right. However, this Government has already made a change without any consultation whatsoever. The RPI to CPI Osborne stealth tax which affects Private Sector and State pensioners as well. Sign the petition NOW.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1535

Nearly 88,000 have already done so.

Snow_Angel

I'm a public sector worker but as a physiotherapist I have the option of switching to private sector, where I would get paid significantly more than I do now, or emigrating which is looking a better option! I'm getting really annoyed with the private vs public arguments and general bickering. Surely we're all on the same side. We're all being shafted.

Here's the facts about MPs pensions:

A funded final salary scheme (their reforms for public sector are career average)
Normal retirement age is 65, minimum age is 55 (for us with very physically demanding professions it's going to be 68)
MPs can contribute either 11.9%, 7.9% or 5.9% of their £65,738-a-year salary (hard life!)
From April payments are now increased in line with the consumer prices index Accrual is capped at two-thirds of an MP's final salary
The coalition agreement included a commitment to consult with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority on "how to move away from the general final salary pension system" ('"commitment to consult" menas nothing)
28.7% taxpayers contribution added to their own contributions

Public sector and private sector workers all get way, way less than this and despite their 'reforms' for public sector pensions they are not changing their own pensions...despite them being public sector workers.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=...9m5V-lHg9qv4jw

ILW

Snow_Angel wrote: »

I'm a public sector worker but as a physiotherapist I have the option of switching to private sector, where I would get paid significantly more than I do now, or emigrating which is looking a better option! I'm getting really annoyed with the private vs public arguments and general bickering. Surely we're all on the same side. We're all being shafted.

Here's the facts about MPs pensions:

A funded final salary scheme (their reforms for public sector are career average)
Normal retirement age is 65, minimum age is 55 (for us with very physically demanding professions it's going to be 68)
MPs can contribute either 11.9%, 7.9% or 5.9% of their £65,738-a-year salary (hard life!)
From April payments are now increased in line with the consumer prices index Accrual is capped at two-thirds of an MP's final salary
The coalition agreement included a commitment to consult with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority on "how to move away from the general final salary pension system" ('"commitment to consult" menas nothing)
28.7% taxpayers contribution added to their own contributions

Public sector and private sector workers all get way, way less than this and despite their 'reforms' for public sector pensions they are not changing their own pensions...despite them being public sector workers.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=...9m5V-lHg9qv4jw

There are anly around 600 MPs so the effect is miniscule on the economy.
There are millions of public sector employees so it has a big effect on the national finances.

J_i_m

Indeed. Parity between the wealthy, average joe & the poor is the real problem. I think it was raised by some guy in the church (of all places) quite recently and yet inevitably it basically got completely ignored from all sides. People enjoy fighting amongst themselves it seems.

I think from yesterdays announcements the way things are going sooner rather than later there isn't going to be much of a public sector left anyway. In the future this might ease the perception of the tax payer propping up the public sector worker yet in reality we'll all be worse off.

When talking about the real world and sandpits I do think even the private sector have things relatively ok, what would one say if a Somalian told us all to remove our heads from our sand pits and invited us to thier world?

meercatsunited

CLAPTON wrote: »

yes I rather favour the continental approach to pensions

larger taxpayer funded pension for all workers and less occupational provision (both state and private)

agreed, seen the continental approach in action

public sector workers have it cushy (been there, seen it as a temp) they also want the rest of us to pay them a cushy pension when the country cannot afford it

whats their statement all for one and one for me me me