ATBU? Tories and DUP in favour of freezing public sector pay

[AtHomeDadGlos]

So, the Tories along with their cash rich friends the DUP have just voted down Labour's amendment (supported by every other MP) to end the public sector pay freeze.

So they can find £1bn to keep themselves in power but can't find anything to pay our firefighters, nurses, police force or teachers more?

TABU aren't they?

and another election

There was a time, not long ago, when they threatened to call an election to "send Labour into the wilderness for a generation".

What happened?

But we aren't going to have a stable government any time soon are we because of the state she has put us in!

That's not something we can predict, Sirzy, looks like we just have to lurch from day to day now. I do know that private sector money is a better guarantee of public sector living wage though. Combination of far left Labour + Brexit would be catastrophic for workers.

Off to work now, I'm kinda the opposite of the OP!

I don't think it takes a genius to realise that the government as it stands is anything but stable. For a start why else would we need to bribe the DUP and risk stability in Ireland if that was the case?

The 'pay freeze' is in reality a pay cut taking into account inflation.

The public are losing out from this, as pitiful wages mean posts go unfilled, as people choose other careers or move abroad to where they would be better paid. It's not cost saving either, due to this.

For example a doctor costs well over 100,000 to drain, and a very significant proportion are moving to Australia and other countries at the moment. There is very little reason to stay.

As a PP said, they voted against it because it was politicking 101 by Jeremy Corbyn - he would have been remiss not to do it, and he succeeded in making them look like The Nasty Party.

Any lifting of pay caps/freezes needs to come from the party in power, not the opposition; for that reason I am not pissed off at last night's vote - however, I would be surprised & angry if the next budget does not address it.

Shit sorry private sector - doh 😖

I don't think it takes a genius to realise that the government as it stands is anything but stable.^

Anyone who has actually studied the history of minority governments would know the odds are very long on that one.

Illness, death, defections, and just a logistical cock up (traffic on the roads) could lead to a vote being defeated at any time. Add to that the ongoing internal wrangles of local party politics which could make an MP have to decide if they're going to be the constituencies next MP, and you have all the ingredients for a Coalition of Chaos.

I was intrigued to see that Googling "Coalition of Chaos" now brings up the autosuggestion "coalition of chaos ... Tory DUP deal"

User you're a nice person aren't you?

Even before the official pay cap we were no better off. When the economy was booming and house prices were rocketing we were given next to no pay rise because they didn't want to encourage inflation. Then everything crashed and we got no pay rise as there was no money.

The automatic increase in my part of the public sector stopped years ago. It was replaced with performance related increases, with expectations that you would never be able to meet in your day job - influencing national policy when your job is very much front-line area based. It's pretty much no progression at all.

I chose to leave the public sector - I do a different job now as my old one was public sector specific.

I'm going email my Tory mp using your template op.
I'm a band 3 HCA. I'm at the top of my band. I earn the same amount now as what I did top of band 2 working nights. I get taxed more, my pension has gone up , so I am no better off .
PP correct , our trust only seems to advertise for newly qualified band 5 . It is very rare a band 6 post comes along and most of the time the job has already been allocated and they are just going through the motions.
So not only do I work full time on my unit, I'm also doing bank work in the trust to keep my head above water, I'm tired all the time, it's effecting home life. It's shit.

Sent an email to David Rutly . Twat.

Nobody voted on this DUP/Tory Regime. Weak and clueless they are.

No plans for growth. No plans for Brexit. No plans for public safety or care or anything.

Careening now from crisis to crisis.

If you want to talk about official state names, there isn't a state that is just called Ireland

Yes there is. Small country right under NI. Called Ireland. That is literally the actual name.

I think it was a huge mistake (and disgusting) to vote against the pay rise.
I think that cheering the results was incredibly, gob-smackingly stupid and shows a lack of self awareness that is hard to comprehend.
Whatever their personal reasons for voting the way they did, surely they could foresee how this would look? Do they not care about the optics at all?
There is a lot of anger and discontentment building in the country at the moment, and why they seem so intent on whipping it up I don't know. Tensions over all sorts of issues are very high at the moment. No doubt if things do spill over in a dangerous way, they will be caught completely off guard and claim it was completely unpredictable.

No, Republic of is the descriptor, not the name.

The teachers I know find it impossible to get the performance related pay rise they deserve, because the (cash strapped) schools create the targets and conduct the appraisals in such a way that no matter how well they perform, they will always be appraised as being just short of what they need for a pay rise. In the private sector, where my experience is, we have "SMART" goals, which mean that although we have to work hard for our prp, we know that it is achievable and the decision is made in a transparent way. But then the company I worked for had more than enough money to pay it's employees.

I'm a student midwife. Part of the last cohort to get the bursary (it's not much, but our uni fees are paid). I'm cross-eyed with tiredness this morning after working 12.5 hour night shifts for the last 3 days, 2 of those shifts without a single break. This September's intake will be PAYING to do these shifts. I think I'm getting a UTI because there's no time to drink enough water, or go for a wee.

We are understaffed - not enough midwives, MCAs or nursery nurses. We lack vital equipment, I spent much of last night running between Labour ward and post-natal to borrow equipment becasue we don't have enough CTG machines, or Sphygs (basic equipment to take blood pressure) or even sodding lamps so we can see to properly suture women who suffer perineal damange during delivery.

The fabulous, dedicated Band 5 midwives I work with are on salaries of £21k. You can't even clear your student debt on that (and we all have student debt, because bursaries don't cover living costs). They haven't had all the fight sucked out of them yet because they're relatively new, but my god can you tell the difference with the longer serving MWs. They're broken down and knackered. They're badly paid and getting two fifths of fuck-all as a payrise. And their MP's vote (we're in a Tory constituency) just told them they're not worth any more.

I am absolutely fucking raging.

pingu I looked at doing my nurse training . It would cost me £27k .
That's what puts me off .
( through ou as can't afford to give up work)

As a teacher my performance related pay is linked to the performance of all my students, some of whom have done very little work despite endless chasing, intervention sessions, contact with home. One key student went on holiday in the middle of their exams.
So, no performance related pay rise for me then.

Whatever their personal reasons for voting the way they did, surely they could foresee how this would look? Do they not care about the optics at all?

I agree. But, the more and more I see of the Tory government, the more I realise they just don't care. And they'll still get their voters out in full support.

Already I saw on Twitter, people arguing about not having enough money for a pay rise, and that it's all labour's fault for the debt they passed on. Austerity is down to Labour.

In order to spot the twitter users with this view it's easy. They have a little British flag next to their name 🇬🇧...

I don't understand how the government can't see that the continued cap on pay is costing the country money. I can only speak for nursing, but the staff shortages and retention problems mean wards are more and more dependent on agency workers. Furthermore permanent staff are going part time and working agency as it pays better. This is costing the NHS an enormous amount of money (appx £3.7bn in 2015/16!) Where is most of that money going? Into the pockets of private, profit-making companies. They must be laughing their heads off. Nurses are quitting in droves, they are retiring, potential nurses aren't training because of the cost, EU nurses are leaving and no one is coming to replace them, everywhere is short staffed and people are going off sick and stressed because of it.

It's not fucking rocket science. Nurses do the job because they care (otherwise the NHS would have collapsed a long time ago). We don't want to quit, we just want to be able to live and to feed and shelter our families. Just pay us a decent wage ffs!

more and more dependent on agency workers

Absolutely. It is a racket.

AtHomeDadGlos I'm guessing by your user name you live where I do.

If old Dickie Graham is your MP I would be very interested to hear his response to your email if you don't mind posting it. I will also be contacting him later today.