Teacher strike

Gillyx

Person_one wrote: »

So which ones are overpaid?

Nurses? Paramedics? HCAs? Teaching Assistant? Social Workers? Jobcentre Staff? Police officers? Firefighters? Traffic Wardens? Binmen? Cleaners? School cooks? Dinnerladies? Lollipop men? Soldiers? The people answering the phones at the tax office or at your local council?

Most admin and call centre jobs with the government are over paid, compared to people in similar work out with the public sector.

When I worked for the job centre, I was over paid, for a glorified admin job, I was paid more 4 years ago than what a friend is now with a degree working for a recruitment agency in a graduate position.

The perks were pretty good too, flexi time being the main thing.

My OH worked for HMRC for a good while in the call centre and even he admits he was paid a lot for the job he done, his hours were 8-5 or 9-6. 1 in 4 Saturdays, 1 in 6 late Thursdays. Tell me a call centre now where the majority of staff are doing those type of hours?

My friends working in call centres for large companies/banks are being paid nearer 12/13k a year, and working a lot more unsociable hours etc.

I appreciate that not everyone in the public sector is over paid and/or under worked, and have close friends who are nurses, teachers and I realise 1 nurse cannot work a ward of 14 people, for a 12 hour shift, like she has to at times.

The majority of people I know though have went to picket lines today, and not seen it as an excuse to get some Christmas shopping done.

My mother who is middle level management within the civil service, went to work today, because in her 25 years of service she has never seen a strike solve anything and being honest, the pig headed government we have at the moment, can you see them backing down?

Person_one

lostinrates wrote: »

Two of my close friends are officers. I do not think their flat rate of pay s overpaid but as they say, its not that where they ''make the money''. One is particular is a huge fan of get you home payments made on all her free weekends...at a rate more than five times the cost of her coming home. The other told me he i having order to buy stuff they don't eed becuse they HAVE to spen the oey so as not to be awarded less in the future. I here shocking tales of waste of hundreds of thousands from this one guy. Multiplying that across the services could result in a lot better condition for those lower ranking (ad shamefully treated on leaving the services) soldiers or a contribution towards the deficit.

Is your keyboard broken?!

BJV

I know exactly how you feel I used to work for some-one who made everything into a drama. I have two small children one of whom was quiet ill when he was very young and instead of extra time off or allowances, even being able to get off early to go to hospital appointments etc it was like world war 3.

Unless you have children you can not understand what it is like trying to juggle childcare and work. Where i work now they are a lot more flexible and guess what I work better. Bit of give and take goes a long way.

Thank god this strike is just for one day.:D

lostinrates

Person_one wrote: »

Is your keyboard broken?!

no, I have a neurological condition which sometimes make my typing funky.

kelloggs36

Person_one wrote: »

So which ones are overpaid?

Nurses? Don't take any work home and work an average week in terms of hours, with pay on par with teachers' payParamedics? Again, once they clock off, they clock off and go homeHCAs? ditto Teaching Assistant? dittoSocial Workers? dittoJobcentre Staff? Police officers? Firefighters? Traffic Wardens? Binmen? Cleaners? School cooks? Dinnerladies? Lollipop men? Soldiers? The people answering the phones at the tax office or at your local council?

All the professions you quote above don't take work home every night - teachers do I'm afraid. I get into work every day at between 8 - 8.15am and leave about 6pm. I then go home and do at least another 2 hours every night - now I have worked in the private sector and never had to do that! On top of that, every Sunday I spend about 7 hours working - planning and getting resources ready for the following week. There are also after school clubs which we aren't paid for. Plus, during our annual leave I have to assess, write reports, plan and prepare for the next term. The only actual time I get off are a few weeks in the Summer and the second week of the Christmas and Easter break. I also have to work during the lunch hour in order to get ready for the afternoon lessons, so I get about 20 mins lunch break if I am lucky. Half terms are spent working - in October I had a day off! If you average that out over the year, it works out that we work about 50 plus hours per week, which is way over what we are paid for. Now I don't mind doing it, but there comes a point where I feel we are taken advantage of. Doctors, lawyers etc are paid way over what we are paid even if they do work the same hours! If we were remunerated in the same way as doctors or lawyers, then I wouldn't be complaining, but I am paid less than 30k per year - the max I can earn (in 2 years' time) will be £30.5k per year, not what the media say we earn. Of course I appreciate that lots of people are paid less than this, but I bet they don't work in excess of 50 hours per week.

lostinrates

kelloggs36 wrote: »

All the professions you quote above don't take work home every night - teachers do I'm afraid. I get into work every day at between 8 - 8.15am and leave about 6pm. I then go home and do at least another 2 hours every night - now I have worked in the private sector and never had to do that! On top of that, every Sunday I spend about 7 hours working - planning and getting resources ready for the following week. There are also after school clubs which we aren't paid for. Plus, during our annual leave I have to assess, write reports, plan and prepare for the next term. The only actual time I get off are a few weeks in the Summer and the second week of the Christmas and Easter break. I also have to work during the lunch hour in order to get ready for the afternoon lessons, so I get about 20 mins lunch break if I am lucky. Half terms are spent working - in October I had a day off! If you average that out over the year, it works out that we work about 50 plus hours per week, which is way over what we are paid for. Now I don't mind doing it, but there comes a point where I feel we are taken advantage of. Doctors, lawyers etc are paid way over what we are paid even if they do work the same hours! If we were remunerated in the same way as doctors or lawyers, then I wouldn't be complaining, but I am paid less than 30k per year - the max I can earn (in 2 years' time) will be £30.5k per year, not what the media say we earn. Of course I appreciate that lots of people are paid less than this, but I bet they don't work in excess of 50 hours per week.

What sort of lawyers? Criminal solicitiors qualify on low 20ks in many places.

When dh works overtime (corporate) its not at home out side 8 and 6, its either at his desk in the office all night or in a hotel room. 50 hours is a light week. This year he was shipped out overseas, no notice that very same day, given no idea when he would be back (ended up at almost three months, could have been sixish). In the last five years we have only taken holiday time ONCE without it being cancelled or postponed (obviously impacting on family time, ore so in a household where both people are employed becuse a partner's employer can not be expected to reschedule around the other partner's employment!). These cancelleations have happened while we are on the car on the way to soewhere. On his week off he worked 35 hours. The hours might be similar (though our teacher friends say his hours are far, far longer) but there is no flexibilty or schedule. If a client wants you at 2 am on christmas day then you are there at 2 am on christmas day.

eidt: this link to BBC suggests a figure under £32 k puts people in the top 25% of all earners in UK. That's not really so badly paid comparitively, when its considered the increase in percentage of people who are graduates searching for jobs too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8151355.stm

gregg1

jackieblack wrote: »

But then of course you get a lecture from the school about how "every lesson counts" and how detrimental it is to your child's education to miss even one day of school :mad:
You can't have it both ways!

(I don't happen to think that a day off is going to do any child any harm but it's the typical hypocrisy from schools & teachers that gets up the noses of parents)

And what about the total hypocrisy of some parents who think nothing of taking their kids out for holidays during term time but kick up a right stink if the kids do not get the desired grades!!!

patchwork_cat

kelloggs36 wrote: »

All the professions you quote above don't take work home every night - teachers do I'm afraid. I get into work every day at between 8 - 8.15am and leave about 6pm. I then go home and do at least another 2 hours every night - now I have worked in the private sector and never had to do that! On top of that, every Sunday I spend about 7 hours working - planning and getting resources ready for the following week. There are also after school clubs which we aren't paid for. Plus, during our annual leave I have to assess, write reports, plan and prepare for the next term. The only actual time I get off are a few weeks in the Summer and the second week of the Christmas and Easter break. I also have to work during the lunch hour in order to get ready for the afternoon lessons, so I get about 20 mins lunch break if I am lucky. Half terms are spent working - in October I had a day off! If you average that out over the year, it works out that we work about 50 plus hours per week, which is way over what we are paid for. Now I don't mind doing it, but there comes a point where I feel we are taken advantage of. Doctors, lawyers etc are paid way over what we are paid even if they do work the same hours! If we were remunerated in the same way as doctors or lawyers, then I wouldn't be complaining, but I am paid less than 30k per year - the max I can earn (in 2 years' time) will be £30.5k per year, not what the media say we earn. Of course I appreciate that lots of people are paid less than this, but I bet they don't work in excess of 50 hours per week.

Nurses and paramedics don't physically take work home with them, but I am sure hardly any just leave it at the door. How can you criticise them not taking work home does a teacher work a night, followed by a long day a day later then another night etc .or the next 7 days, so that don't know if it is day or night? Try having a family and a life around that.

mummyofboys

I am a student nurse and whilst on placement, I have witnessed nurses taking work home after work... reading up and refreshing there skills, completing online in house courses and generally keeping there knowledge and skills up to date.

Also since being a nurse, the emotional baggage you bring home from work is astounding I have often found myself worrying about patients at home and thinking about there progress which is mentally draining.

bagginslover

I'm surprised that no-one has pointed out the difference between a child being taken out of school for a day by their parents, and a child that misses a day due to a strike!

The child that is taken out when their classmates are all still in school will miss lessons, whereas the child that is off when all their classmates are also off won't miss lessons at all, as they will be taught those lessons a day later. All the children are on an equal footing, so no detriment to their education, but the child that becomes behind may then not understand the next bit of work as they missed something vital when they were off.