Good luck to state workers picketing today

grizzly1911

ruggedtoast wrote: »

The trouble with you people is that you want first world public services at third world prices.

You will end up disappointed one way or the other I can tell you.

Or we could privatise it and reverse that theory to achieve the same level of disappointment;)

Busybody

I know a retired civil servant! she is quids in!! appart from taking an extended break to have 2 children she worked in the job since leaving school..
After the maternity leave she worked part time for years untill a couple of years before retiring,then she went full time therefore she was eligible for final salary pension.
I'll bet she would have reported her'claimant clients' for pulling such a scam.

How many more of them are at it? bancrupting the country!!

Graham_Devon

Really2 wrote: »

Shame they seem to have on average higher sickness than the private sector.

I think in general they are treated as a perk, no ulterior motive, if there was evidence that doing so was cheaper than days off sick it would be rife across all sectors.

Is it any surprise that a sector that includes the Army, Police, Firemen and Health workers surrounded by illnesses have more days off?

MacMickster

Really2 wrote: »

Shame they seem to have on average higher sickness than the private sector.

My understanding of this is that large public sector employers are under an obligation to be "model" employers in the way that they deal with those with long-term illness or disability.

A large part of the reported sick leave for the public sector relates to people who have been off work for very long periods of time (in some cases well over a year) with their job being kept open for them. They are not being paid, so are no longer costing their employer anything, but do add to the often quoted sickness absence statistics. If there is any chance that these employees are able to return to work and perform effectively in the future then this saves on the costs of recruiting and training replacements, so across a very large organisation makes economic sense. This is not something which could be done by smaller private sector employers however.

I believe that short-term sickness absence rates in the public sector are very similar to those in large private sector organisations.

ruggedtoast

This day of action is almost at an end. It will probably not be the last.

Millions have voted with their feet and fired a powerful warning shot across the bows of the hateful neo-liberal ideologues who seek to assault our treasured public services.

The public sector is the backbone from which Britain stands tall and strong and our public sector workers have shown today that they have fortitude by the bucketful, and are prepared to face down short sighted and destructive coalition policy.

julieq

Not a dry eye in my local transgender outreach centre after that wonderful tribute, Toast. Well done.

chewmylegoff

ruggedtoast wrote: »

The public sector is the backbone from which Britain stands tall and strong...

Are you sure that isn't the Ford Transit?

grizzly1911

Busybody wrote: »

I know a retired civil servant! she is quids in!! appart from taking an extended break to have 2 children she worked in the job since leaving school..
After the maternity leave she worked part time for years untill a couple of years before retiring,then she went full time therefore she was eligible for final salary pension.
I'll bet she would have reported her'claimant clients' for pulling such a scam.

How many more of them are at it? bancrupting the country!!

I know somebody in the public sector who worked for 5 years or so full time, left to bring up children, working ad hoc anti social shift patterns, then went back to work full time for then 2 years. Total time in work 24 years. That person is entitled to a final salary payment, what ever that may be (now average) guess how many years service has been actually accrued - 10 years.

Just because you participate in a scheme doesn't mean you accrue the whole benefit.

It is not that persons fault for drawing down what ever pension rights she is contractually entitled to. It is the employer and Government policy.

I know many in the private sector who have widely differing results from there schemes. In many cases it is down to the length of service x time in scheme x contribution rate that make the difference. Most in the public sector already contribute between 6 - 11 % of salary. I know some in the private sector who continue contribute nothing even in todays market. I also know others who have had deferred pensions in the private sector effectively decimated by "management" charges.

ruggedtoast

julieq wrote: »

Not a dry eye in my local transgender outreach centre after that wonderful tribute, Toast. Well done.

I'm not going to ask what you're doing in there Jules but I am sure you appreciate those people being there for you and the sacrifices they have made. :-)

Mallotum_X

ruggedtoast wrote: »

This day of action is almost at an end. It will probably not be the last.

Millions have voted with their feet and fired a powerful warning shot across the bows of the hateful neo-liberal ideologues who seek to assault our treasured public services.

The public sector is the backbone from which Britain stands tall and strong and our public sector workers have shown today that they have fortitude by the bucketful, and are prepared to face down short sighted and destructive coalition policy.

Its rubbish like this that gets the public sector a bad name.


More strikes will no doubt cause more pain, but a huge amount of that will be for the strikers themselves. In these difficult times how many can afford to lose a days pay every month - whats that a 5% monthly pay cut?

From listening to coverage on the local radio many of the strikers dont even know why they are striking - tory cuts, pay freezes, an increase in the state pension age were mentioned by several.

I wonder if the 1% pay cap was announced simply to create something to offer as a concession by the government to get the pension deal through - 4% rises and pension reform...Wont be long.