Why Exactly Are Northern Ireland Wages So Low? (Merged)

Dave_Brooker

dj9928 wrote: »

Houses are cheap:rotfl: :rotfl: They have risen higher than anywhere else in the UK bar London

From next to nothing to almost next to nothing...

Still hold on:

http://www.ulsterpropertysales.co.uk/

Prices have gone into orbit, peace dividend??

Dave_Brooker

leftieM wrote: »

Dave's post is entirely true assuming he wrote it prior to 1997.
So anyway, Dave, back to 2007 - any thoughts?

OP's right, rubbish wages and high cost of living, what's going on??

talksalot81

One might equally ask why we deserve higher wages...

What do we do in NI to warrant it? The province is totally reliant on the public sector, there is almost no industry and there is very limited high tech development. If average wages went up, that would have to be public sector driven and, IMHO, we spend enough there already! Do we really want increases in our rates to cover this (you can be darned sure that the government will not be giving us even more cash to cover it!)? If the increases were to come from our rather limited industry then industry has got to make it back somehow. Local firms have it tough enough - we pay more for virtually everything than the rest of the UK yet can sell for no more. Somewhere in there, the hit on profit has got to be factored in. If the workforce did not take that hit, then the bosses would and resultantly the business may well cease to be altogether.

My take on the matter is that NI is currently totally reliant on handouts. If we want to do better for ourselves, we need to look in the mirror and make it happen. In my view, this would not be constituted by striking or forcing our employers hands (in many instances) as this may work on the short term, but medium to long would be entirely counter productive to our cause.

Colin_Kee

Very true Talksalot. I believe 60 or 70 odd percent of jobs in NI are "Public sector. This is a bit of a joke.. The assembly really need to try to attract more private sector investment into the province..

I would also say that the current public sector needs a bloody good shake-up. I mean from recent reports of astronomical numbers of "Sick Days" I as a tax payer certainly don't want to be paying for some lazy sod skiving some Friday or Monday because of a hangover!!

I know from friends who work in councils and Education Authorities the abuses of the "Systems" that take place. these people should be disiplined more.

Leftie. Calvinist 'work ethic' ??? Does that mean if the Catholic population increases quicker than the Protestant population then Northern Ireland will get lazyer!!

Parisien

Colin_Kee wrote: »

Does that mean if the Catholic population increases quicker than the Protestant population then Northern Ireland will get lazyer!!

Too right........sure look at the mess the Catholics have made down south........I mean...only 2nd wealthiest economy in western world.....almost no u/e.....no one wants to go and live there.....houses going for a pitance.....


What a god for saken mess!!

PS Its just a pity our local Protestant populace could't make the same mess here.......:rotfl:

leftieM

Colin_Kee wrote: »

Leftie. Calvinist 'work ethic' ??? Does that mean if the Catholic population increases quicker than the Protestant population then Northern Ireland will get lazyer!!

It was just a theory as to why our wages here are historically low. I didn't invent the concept of the protestant work ethic, John Calvin and Martin Luther preached of this some centuries ago. I'm merely postulating that perhaps the presbyterians who arrived here over the years carried this work ethic with them and believed in the glory of work for its own sake rather than for financial gain. This idea may have been exploited by some industrialists in that they employed workers on lower wages (than their english counterparts) as they knew that their employees may feel a religious duty to work and would do so even at lower rates of pay.
It is possible that this value has carried through in some way to the present day. Or I could be talking ****.
If the catholic population wishes to reproduce at such a rate that they outnumber the protestants here then I suspect they'll be too knackered to do any work so, yes, the workforce will get lazier .

Colin_Kee

leftieM wrote: »

If the catholic population wishes to reproduce at such a rate that they outnumber the protestants here then I suspect they'll be too knackered to do any work so, yes, the workforce will get lazier .

Whats Knackering about making babies. I mean it only takes about 2 Mins!!:rotfl: .....

dj9928

Colin_Kee wrote: »

Very true Talksalot. I believe 60 or 70 odd percent of jobs in NI are "Public sector. This is a bit of a joke.. The assembly really need to try to attract more private sector investment into the province..

I would also say that the current public sector needs a bloody good shake-up. I mean from recent reports of astronomical numbers of "Sick Days" I as a tax payer certainly don't want to be paying for some lazy sod skiving some Friday or Monday because of a hangover!!

I know from friends who work in councils and Education Authorities the abuses of the "Systems" that take place. these people should be disiplined more.

Leftie. Calvinist 'work ethic' ??? Does that mean if the Catholic population increases quicker than the Protestant population then Northern Ireland will get lazyer!!

Well I don't know about you but any job I have had if your sick you don't get paid, Why on earth would you get paid for being sick?

Thriftylady

I've worked in both the private and public sector and I saw an awful lot more people ringing in sick with a hangover in my days in the private sector. There are always people who exploit the situation, no matter where you work.

I'm not convinced by all these horror stories of civil servants believing they are 'entitled' to two weeks off sick each year alongside their annual leave. Part of the reason why their figures look so bad is that they hold jobs open for sick employees long after a private sector employer might have dismissed them. My father in law was a civil servant and fought cancer for three years. Although not actually getting his salary, he was not dismissed and was still classed as an employee and therefore as being on sick leave, so when you factor that sort of thing into your 'average sick leave' figure.......Anywhere I've worked in the private sector would just have dismissed him, so its no surprise that on the face of it they appear to have better attendance.

dj9928

Thriftylady wrote: »

I've worked in both the private and public sector and I saw an awful lot more people ringing in sick with a hangover in my days in the private sector. There are always people who exploit the situation, no matter where you work.

I'm not convinced by all these horror stories of civil servants believing they are 'entitled' to two weeks off sick each year alongside their annual leave. Part of the reason why their figures look so bad is that they hold jobs open for sick employees long after a private sector employer might have dismissed them. My father in law was a civil servant and fought cancer for three years. Although not actually getting his salary, he was not dismissed and was still classed as an employee and therefore as being on sick leave, so when you factor that sort of thing into your 'average sick leave' figure.......Anywhere I've worked in the private sector would just have dismissed him, so its no surprise that on the face of it they appear to have better attendance.

My neighbour is a civil servant, and she has the best holidays I ever seen, she is always bloody off on the sick, Nurses are another good one for pulling sickies, My best mates wife is a nurse and she will think nothing of going on the sick for a week. You know how to stop this?? Don't pay sick pay, You go to any factory across the provence I can guarantee they don't pay sick pay and if your off for more than 3 days you then get the stat sick pay, I guarantee attendance is better than any civil servant office. I mean why should I be paying for a civil servants day off when they just feel like a duvet day, madness