Public sector - Pensions

[maisiejoe123]

AIBU - to get irritated by the public sector bleating that they are being picked on with regard to their final salary pension schemes and being asked to retire at 65 as opposed to 60.

Why are they any different from others? I would love to retire at 60 but my company has moved the retirement date to 65. The state pension age has also moved. I understand all of this and whilst I am not happy (dont want to chase my retirement!)I accept that things need to change.

And they plan to strike???

Why do so many public sector workers compare themselves with private sector workers at the top of the scale? They're dreaming if they think they could compete with the best of the best in the real world after years of idling in cushy public sector secure employment.

Why do you think people are protesting? They know if they lose their jobs they will struggle to find another one, because to most reputable employers, public sector experience is little better than long spells of unemployment on a CV.

The thing is - 'The Public Sector' is huge and diverse - both in terms of types of job as well as Terms & Conditions and pension schemes. It covers, NHS, Emergency services, Central Gov, Local Gov. All of whom have differing terms and conditions and differing pension provisions. For the Civil Service - which is Central Gov employees DWP, HMRC, DfE, DBIS etc the final salary pension scheme ended for any new entrants approx 8 years ago. What this is about is whether it is morally right to change somebodies key T & C or contract a significant time into that contract. I believe that is wrong. I actually think that most people believe that to be wrong, but because this has happened to some private sector employees the attitude seems to be 'it happened to us, so why shouldn't it happen to you'.

The problem with that is this: This Gov believes in outsourcing, I believe that they intend to outsource as much of the public sector as they can. What will this mean? It will mean that services which are hard to provide or have a small number of consumers, won't be considered to be lucrative enough and so will remain in the public sector - whose terms and conditions will have been wiped out. The rest will go out to the private sector, with the hard work around dumbing down the pay, and contractual terms and conditions already done. That means that the big bosses in the outsource companies will rake it in, costing the taxpayer the same amount, but the employees - us - will get bottom of the barrel 'private sector' terms. And every one of you who have bought into this private sector against public sector government propoganda, will either see your services deteriorate or end up working in the jobs that you used to envy - and so supported the denigration of the pay and T & C - and so your pay and conditions will be very poor.

So, I suppose that it will be poetic justice, but unfortunately I work in the Public Sector because I believe in it - the idea that everyone will pay in the end gives me no pleasure whatsoever.

So dreamingof if you are gullible enough to believe the propoganda or buy into these politics of envy and division - whilst disappointing, is really up to you - but in the end Britain will pay with 3rd world services and welfare state and a huge divide between the have's and the have not's. Which will impact and cost us all - regardless of where we think we currently stand.

i work for a privatised organisation that was publicly owned a number of years ago. when i think about many of the processes and how it used to treat the customers pre-privatisation its a joke. things that are now done very cheaply in a matter of days used to take weeks and cost a fortune.

We would have outsourced some public sector jobs, but because the pensions were so great we couldn't do it as it did not make economic sense.

call me all sorts of things but i don't think i'm gullible and i don't see the relevance of what paper i read.

i still think that all employees should be treated equally taking into account the effort they put in and the skills they have.

And by equally - you mean equally badly not equally well.

robF think outside your own profession. Im mine, the top movers ARE in the public sector. Thats the nature of my profession (health care based). In y game, work in the private sector pays less.