What with flexible hours, duvet days, 35 days holiday a year and a day of for HM Queen, has anyone noticed?

PS

Why do they think they are more deserving then private sector workers, who get fooked over just as much, if not more then your average civil servant..

Probably because they've been consistently paid under the rate of inflation for the last ten years and have only been offered 2.45% more this year, even though everything's skyrocketed and inflation itself is hanging around the 4% mark.

And regardless of some of the bonuses, their jobs are still pretty shit on the whole. I don't blame them.

Seconded. I entirely concur with Mr Ginger. 10 years since they were paid at or above inflation.

Flexible hours- so do many private sector jobs and they still have to give up the same amount of hours as private sector jobs.

Duvet days- I've never met anyone who gets these. private or public sector.

35 days a year holiday- public sectors generally get the same holidays as private. There is very little difference.

All in all, your argument is total bollocks.

Well said sir.

The useless sods want the moon on a stick.

One minute they're arguing the toss that they should have a better pension than anybody in the private sector (all courtesy of our tax money by the way) and the next minute they are saying that they want more wages then the private sector to go with their pension.

Fk em all, I hope their house was burgled while they were on the picket line.

Like all too many businesses there is much too big a pay differential in Councils / Local Authorities. Many people earning £60k plus for not doing a lot and passing the work on to others and taking 'wild' executive decisions based on fantasy. Many others earning around the £100k+ mark and again not meriting this. Many of the higher paid posts have a performance related bonus attached (up to 17% of salary that I know of) and the measure of this is pretty arbitary. How can you measure if a community is satisfied with the services it receives when it is usually just happy to get any service at all.

That was my point entirely. The vast majority are on low wages with schemes to de skill certain services like Social Workers (ok, I know nobody likes them) work being done by assistants and care workers, all who do a good job in their own right but are more easily manipulated in providing cheaper inadequate services.

oi I'm a public sector worker and compared to what the councillers in Stockton have approved for themselves the pittance we have been offered is an insult insult
who has these grand ideas that we do fook all

No it isnt

The vast majority of public sector workers have had fook all for years, salary increases on-line or below inflation.
Do workers at Garlands, for instance, get the same wack in a pension and holidays, do they fcuk!

Not to forget that the glass eyed one removed the tax relief on private pensions, so anyone with a private pension got it right up the dirt box

I'm not saying public sector workers do less, but not everyone on the private sector is on £35000 a year

missus went to work

would lose more for the days off than the payrise

35k isn't that much any more.

To some it is......, but the public sector, or the civil service unions appear to be under the impression that only their members are on a basic wage, most shop workers for instance are only on minimum wage, but don't get the pension to match.

Then surely it is up to the shop workers unions etc. to fight for better wages / conditions. Unison are just trying to protect their own members, many of whom (care assitants for example) are not much better paid than shop workers and who have a great deal more responsibility.

Un skilled workers can't expect to earn a lot of money if you are going to be realistic. Those working for the council get a hell of a lot of perks like flexi time which results in extra holidays and most have the opportunity to develop their skills on council time by going to college or university.

If companies don't run efficiently and productive then there are job losses yet there seems to be very little measure of how well the services that the council run are performing......

Surely it does when people's wages are funded through council tax....?

Just out of interest as you think it's so good with lots of perks with no skill needed, why don't you get a job with the council! Seriously no offence intended but I'm interested to know.

I never said there is no skill needed. But if someone has little or no qualifications then surely they cannot demand pay rises.

Although i have worked for the same company for over 4 years now and have a career path planned I would work for the council if the right opportunity became available, I'd be daft not to.

Do soldiers classify as public sector employees? There are plenty of young soldiers in Iraq and A'stan on under 13k. Out of that they have to buy supplimentary kit, thats stuff they buy themselves so they can operate effectively.

Whilst back in camp you can deduct from that their food & accomodation charge and they'll be left with about £150 a week.

Mutt, I wasn't saying its a poor wage, it isn't. But its not a fortune any more.

Mr I trust me, to about 80% of the people living in hartlepool that would be classed as a fortune, and a massive massive jump in quality of life.

You be on one hell of a wage of that is nothing to you.

Don't be daft, I never said it was nothing, I said its not a fortune anymore. I guess I am quite fortunate in terms of salary levels but these things don't happen by accident. Anyone that knows me is aware that I was certainly not born with any silver spoons being waved about., nor was I bundled off to Eton and Oxbridge. I suppose I took Norman Tebbits advice. £35k is above the national average for sure but its not millionnaire levels.

Funny enough, I'm in the process of changing jobs and willingly taking a pay ten grand cut. I've come to the conclusion that the greasy pole is nothing but grief so I've accepted a similar job in a smaller company. The upside is that I'll be working 4 miles from home and next to no travelling. This is a welcome change from about 60'000 miles a year.

me and the wife bring in well above that amount, but we're drowning in debt because of the pub..................so we've probably got less to spend than people who bring in half what we do!!!!

As my boss at Avecia said though, "At least you're still alive Micky"!!!

We're all still alive, but we are not all 'living' at the same level.

Since when do you need qualifications to deserve a better wage? If you do the job well and have the relevant experience, it's not an issue. I know plenty of people who have half my qualifications and twice the experience and they'll walk into the job every time - and I'm fine with it. More suited to the job.

So yeah, you're talking bollocks

TGP - You say if you do the job well. There is very little measure of how many people on the lower end of the scale's at the council are performing. Yet they ALL want a pay rise.... Those who aspire to wanting better wages should get them by getting promotions over the course of time.....

Yeah, but we're not talking about wholesale pay rises, we're talking about matching the rate of inflation and even undercutting the current financial problems of fuel and energy bills (which would in effect still work out as less than they need). By matching the rate of inlation, are you not still paying them the same amount but with just a different label?

I think you're struggling to grasp the general concept of economics here... it's not a case of deserving more, it's a case of getting the "real" wage and at the moment, it's needed more than ever

I didn't realise inflation was at 6% which is what they want. i thought it was something like 3.9%?

Where is the money going to come from for the pay rise?

Unison will settle for 4.5% - I spoke to them today at work. They've been underpaid for ten years, so where does that leave them now in the grand scale of things.

Other interesting facts from this year alone that again reinforce the whole current affairs issues that I've been implying for long enough...
Mortgages up 8%
Petrol up 22%
Bread up 9%
Milk up 17%
Fuel bills up 15%
Inflation up 4.3%

And where else is the money coming from for the pay rise? The surpluses are there, and the only reason they are there is because it's money they've saved by not paying them. Local authorities get most major projects developed by the Lottery fund or the EU Regional Development Fund (see all the work outside of Darlo for instance).

"But it's my bloody taxes"

Yeah, well, same for everything I'm afraid. That's one of the few things that isn't flying up at the moment.

where are you lot gettin your info on inflation your way of the mark....even by government figures...

RPI for June 2008


The all-items retail prices index rose by 4.6 per cent in the year to June 2008, up from 4.3 per cent in May.



http://www.incomesdata.co.uk/statistics/statrpi.htm

it seems there's a few different sources for inflation figures, some taking everything into account and giving a higher figure, and others conveniently forgetting about things they'd rather not take into account (i.e. the Govt's figures to make it look lower)!!!!!

How the Govermnent arrives at the inflation figure of 3.9% -

1 ignore everything that goes up, do not include it in the figure.

2 pick a random number between 2 and 4.

I mean seriously, its all a con and a sham. Who on earth do they think they are kidding? It really gets my goat. You just can't tell me that inflation is 3.9% when everything is going up at a far higher rate than that. Food, fuel, ie the really important things that a high proportion of your income is spent on, its in double figures isn't it?

Theres also things that many people spend money on such as credit card repayments, the interest has gone through the roof, these things haven't been mentioned. Personally I don't have credit cards these days, but many do, many do not clear the full balance each month and many are getting fooked over and spiralling ever further into debt, and this is extra to pay on top of everything else.

3.9%? welcome to the board Brown.

As for the people on strike, well that is up to them and I'm not going to criticise them for it, but one thing that really pissed me off is that the binmen were on strike on Wednesday and the cheeky damned bounders put notes in our bins saying that we were not to overfill our bins next week and they'd refuse to take the bins if we did. What are we supposed to do with two weeks rubbish and one bin?

I'll be waiting for the fookers next Wednesday, with my overfilled bin, and if they refuse to take it they'll be getting the contents rammed up their arseholes.

Fine, strike if you want to, but don't take the fooking piss out of me. Accept that the consequence of your action is going to be a bit more rubbish to collect and don't try and pre-empt this with a warning that you are not prepared to live with this consequence, because 1) you're winding me up big style by doing this and 2) I'll make you take my rubbish.

Utter wankers.

Not really a way to win support for higher pay.

Well said Mr Q.

A lad who is a care worker at HBC last night told me that the lads on the bins are working today and tomorrow on double time, obviously I don't know how true that is but he wasn't very impressed that they will actually be better off because of the strike......

Only in the public sector this would this happen......

I am glad that I had left mine out from the other day they came down my street at around 7:45 ish just i was finishing feeding the littleun

You have to laugh really - bin men on close to or above 20 quid an hour because they are working on a sunday..... no doubt there are some clowns on here that think they are worth that as well....

they still haven't been to get it from our street!!!!