Public Sector Strike(s)

mr-angry

elantan wrote: »

incidently i support a workers right to remove their services if they feel aggrived ... i just wish that public sector workers would appreciate what they do have ... i hear people in the public sector stating how easy and better the private sector have it ... but that isnt always true ... i work really hard for very little money, and i have little to no rights the ones that i do have have been eroded over the years ... i would love to have an employer making contributuons to a pension for me ... i would love to have days like the royal wedding off ... i would love to get paid even time and a half for a public holiday i get straight time even for days like xmas ...

I sympathise with your position but not all public sector workers are lapping in luxury like some of the posts on here would have you believe. If people dont fight for what they have we will all be having a race to the bottom.

pd52

people also forget about companies such Tesco that make billions of £££ profit yet pay national minimum wage that is then topped up with working tax credits paid for by our taxes, how is that fair?

I dont even enjoy my job 90% of the time its a complete nightmare, many times ive gone home and felt like crying after taking abuse off customers. ive had better paid more enjoyable jobs in the private sector, but what do i do? there are no jobs around, perhaps i should hand in my notice and get on JSA, im in work to support myself not to 'see what i can get off the tax payer' believe it or not! Im not afraid to say I work bloody hard and give my best

HelenDaveKids

Think fair point made on previous post, you ARE'NT paying my pension, my pension is part of my wages. You're paying me to work but I'm also paying for the service I provide. I'd like to think you get bloody good value for money too!

dshart

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Read 2 posts above yours then.

I wish some private sector workers, such as banks would be grateful for what they have, but they are not. I'm not going to damn everyone who works in the private sector for it though.

The thing is that the better pensions are enjoyed by just about all public sector workers, yet people use certain sectors of the private sector to compare the perks. Even when you quote the banks you use a very broad generalisation. Do you think majority of the bank workers such as cashiers, call centre and administrative staff get the perks of the high flying bank executives? The banks were bailed out but not thousands of ordinary workers who worked for them. Yes it is disgusting that high flying bank executives are still raking in huge bonuses when the banks have been bailed out, but that does not mean that ordinary bank workers are on great perks.

Other posts have mentioned company cars, share options etc. Again they refer to a very small percentage of private sector workers as opposed to public sector pensions that are a perk for almost every public sector worker.

Another point is the average public sector pension being about £6k but they do not provide figures for the average private sector pension. Many workers in the private sector have no pension provision and although the huge pensions of the top earners in the private sector might skew the average figures the reality is a lot of private sector workers have zero pension and many through no fault of their own.

Remember that the private sector includes some of the lowest paid jobs such as cleaners and security guards some of who are lucky to even get minimum wage. A lot of them work alongside public sector workers and used to be public sector workers but their jobs were contracted out to the private sector. It was cheaper to contract out these lower paid jobs as I doubt any public sector workers earn minimum wage.

So please when people talk about perks in the private sector please talk about perks that are enjoyed by majority of the private sector workers and use them to compare and not just perks that are enjoyed by a few.

Graham_Devon

dshart wrote: »

So please when people talk about perks in the private sector please talk about perks that are enjoyed by majority of the private sector workers and use them to compare and not just perks that are enjoyed by a few.

And not every public sector worker has the pension, many can't afford to contribute. You make it sound like as a public sector worker, the pension is just given to you. It's not. It's an option. You still have to contribute, and it's now nothing like what it was.

So better pensions are not enjoyed by "nearly all public sector workers" at all.

grizzly1911

dtsazza wrote: »

I'm not sold on that argument, partly because I disagree with that specific assessment, but mainly because the big potential area for savings in the public sector is in operational efficiencies (i.e. getting rid of bureaucracy), not in paying the actual rank-and-file less.

dshart wrote: »

Remember that the private sector includes some of the lowest paid jobs such as cleaners and security guards some of who are lucky to even get minimum wage. A lot of them work alongside public sector workers and used to be public sector workers but their jobs were contracted out to the private sector. It was cheaper to contract out these lower paid jobs as I doubt any public sector workers earn minimum wage.

The words of dshart not me.

pd52

dshart wrote: »

The thing is that the better pensions are enjoyed by just about all public sector workers, yet people use certain sectors of the private sector to compare the perks. Even when you quote the banks you use a very broad generalisation. Do you think majority of the bank workers such as cashiers, call centre and administrative staff get the perks of the high flying bank executives? The banks were bailed out but not thousands of ordinary workers who worked for them. Yes it is disgusting that high flying bank executives are still raking in huge bonuses when the banks have been bailed out, but that does not mean that ordinary bank workers are on great perks.

Other posts have mentioned company cars, share options etc. Again they refer to a very small percentage of private sector workers as opposed to public sector pensions that are a perk for almost every public sector worker.

Another point is the average public sector pension being about £6k but they do not provide figures for the average private sector pension. Many workers in the private sector have no pension provision and although the huge pensions of the top earners in the private sector might skew the average figures the reality is a lot of private sector workers have zero pension and many through no fault of their own.

Remember that the private sector includes some of the lowest paid jobs such as cleaners and security guards some of who are lucky to even get minimum wage. A lot of them work alongside public sector workers and used to be public sector workers but their jobs were contracted out to the private sector. It was cheaper to contract out these lower paid jobs as I doubt any public sector workers earn minimum wage.

So please when people talk about perks in the private sector please talk about perks that are enjoyed by majority of the private sector workers and use them to compare and not just perks that are enjoyed by a few.

not even 2 years ago a pay deal for admin assiatnats in the DWP was pushed through as at the time their salary was actually going to be below NMW , believe it or not there are many public sector workers on just above NMW.

Thrugelmir

pd52 wrote: »

people also forget about companies such Tesco that make billions of £££ profit yet pay national minimum wage that is then topped up with working tax credits paid for by our taxes, how is that fair?

Buy the shares for your pension fund.

Tesco is an international business not just UK.

dshart

Graham_Devon wrote: »

And not every public sector worker has the pension, many can't afford to contribute. You make it sound like as a public sector worker, the pension is just given to you. It's not. It's an option. You still have to contribute, and it's now nothing like what it was.

So better pensions are not enjoyed by "nearly all public sector workers" at all.

I think the figures quoted for public sector workers in a pension was around 70% compared to around 30% in the private sector. But the point still remains that the public sector pension is available to just about every public sector worker even though some choose not to take it.

Graham_Devon

dshart wrote: »

I think the figures quoted for public sector workers in a pension was around 70% compared to around 30% in the private sector. But the point still remains that the public sector pension is available to just about every public sector worker even though some choose not to take it.

Well yes, as the private sector will also include all those self employed who have no access at all to company pensions. It will ALWAYS be lower. It will include people working in independant corner shops, family business etc.

It's a much larger sector too. So tryign to get uniformity in terms of percentage take up in pensions across a much more fluid, more larger sector would be extremely difficult and involve huge amounts of crippling regulation for smaller employers.