Talk of gold plated pensions always makes me laugh anyway. I think the Daily Mail likes to make out we are all on huge salaries and in line for enormous 'free' pensions.
The truth is, as a LA worker,if I was fulltime, I would earn about 10 k under the national average. For a stressful job, it is not a great wage. Dh manages a team in NHS and just scrapes the national average. I am not playing woe is me, we have jobs (for now) and are grateful. But our pensions aren't bloody 'great' and we pay a decent percentage in.
Tbh, pensions aren't my big gripe. We haven't had a pay rise in ages. My LA has announced that they are planning on making us all redundant early next year and then rehiring us if we accept revised terms and conditions. The terms are not finalised yet but will likely include a 5.4 % pay cut.
I accept that this is happening in the private sector too. But our pay rises have been none existent or beyond poor for years now. When times are good, and the private sector is raking in big pay rises and huge bonuses, we are grateful to get 2.5 %. Our xmas bonus was to be allowed to leave at 3pm on xmas eve (bearing in mind you had to make the 2 hours up on your clock at another time).
When times are good in the private sector, we are considered mugs at best, substandard and inferior at worst. Nobody cares that we don't get bonuses and decent pay rises then. But when times are hard, we are suddenly viewed as lucky and grabbing with our (perceived) job security.
The things which were the only perks for poor pay and no chance of bonuses were things like flexi time and flexible working patterns and these seem to be disappearing anyway. I'd love to know if the public at large will hold such strong views about our pay if the economy recovers and their payrises are back to eclipsing ours.