Sunday, July 5, 2009

We're all in this together!


It's about time the NuLieBore and BlueLieBore numpties stopped pretending that there will be very few cuts in public spending in the coming years and either wake up and smell the coffee or (shock) be honest about it.

Steve Bundred, head of the Audit Commission, has spoken out and has urged that ALL public sector workers should have wage freezes, including the sacred cow of health and education workers.

Whilst I would hate to deny anyone a decent salary increase, it's about time the public sector realised that the tax payers cushion that they rest on has become more and more threadbare and they should join us private sector lot who have been left to rest on the 'emergency unexpected guest folding chair' for some time now.

My good self received a salary increase of just over 1% the other month, compared with nearly 3% the year before. Why should the public sector expect an increase higher than this? And why should the tax payer cough up?

Still, good to see the unions still living in cloud cuckoo land -

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, angrily condemned Mr Bundred's call.

"The idea that you have to have some equity of misery, that because the private sector is suffering, the public sector must too is disgraceful.

"What it is doing is not understanding the role of public services in a recession - to sustain and rebuild the economy," he told the newspaper.


I'm still trying to understand how the public sector can 'sustain and rebuild the economy'.

Please don't mis-understand me, I am not 'anti public sector'. We need public services, of course we do. There are a lot of hard working dedicated people in it.

However, there are a lot of hard working dedicated people in the private sector too, and we are all in this mess together. Are we not?

9 comments:

microdave said...

"sustaining and rebuilding the economy"

I agree that we need public services, but above inflation pay rises, jobs for life & gold plated pensions are sucking the life OUT of the economy. And they certainly aren't in any hurry to do the work they are paid for round here...

I really must sit down and work out what percentage of the local papers employment section is filled with public sector versus private sector jobs. A quick glance suggests an 80%/20% split.

Anonymous said...

The public sector is a necessary evil. But that doesn't mean they should be allowed to have it easy while those in the private sector have the fear of god injected into them hourly because of the risk of job loss.

The public sector shouldn't be so smug or confident that Labour will protect their jobs. When the grim reaper's scythe comes a'calling, they can scream and shout in disgust all they like. But if the money's not there to pay them, the job they do will be dead. They will just have to get over it like the hundreds or thousands of private sector workers who lose their jobs on a daily basis.

Auld Baw Face said...

I totally agree with you. When everybody is making sacrifices in the private sector. I don’t think it is too much to ask the public sector to do the same.

Barking Spider said...

Not only should there be a pay freeze but in certain 'fat cat' circumstances there should be pay CUTS.

A vast bonfire of idiotic non-jobs would save a fortune and, of course the obliteration of the quangos would save around £164 billion every year. This would go a long way towards repairing McNumpty's fiscal stupidity and it might even help to teach them what it's like for everyone else living in the real world.

Alan W said...

Get this -

"One suggestion was for the Scottish Government to define a "living wage", and commit to paying this to public sector employees.

It is estimated that up to 25% of the Scottish workforce are employed in the public sector.

The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has announced it would campaign for a living wage of £7 an hour, more than the current statutory minimum wage for adults of £5.73 an hour.

Its deputy general secretary, Dave Moxham, said the policy would be hugely symbolic, because the Scottish Government could insist companies supplying it with goods and services also began to pay the increased amount.

Scotland's largest local authority, Glasgow City Council, announced last March that all of its directly-employed workers would be paid at least £7 an hour."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8072661.stm

Interesting times ahead.

The End (Bye Bye!) said...

I agree with Barking Spider - pay cuts are suitable for some.

A glance through the Council jobs pages in the local rag reveals a multitude of vacancies for jobs that have no value at all. People doing that sort of job at the moment should have their pay docked (or they should be sacked).

TheFatBigot said...

Isn't it just typical of the way these people think that taxpayers earning the minimum wage of £5.73 have to pay for people employed by Glasgow City Countil to receive £7 an hour for doing the same job as them.

Brilliant.

Alan W said...

Interesting piece here - http://socialistresistance.org/?p=594

Identifies a few problems correctly imo, but then launches into the usual class warfare crap, talking about "backwards" workers and so on.

Quiet_Man said...

Hey at least you got a pay rise this year, all I got was a pay freeze.