Disgusting

[StoneofDestiny]

AIBU to think it's disgusting that the pay of Nurses, Prison Officers, police, Teachers and other public service workers who have kept us safe despite the risk to themselves throughout this Covid year are the ones that get their pay frozen

Yanbu

I think it’s disgusting all the unpaid carers who are still doing their jobs, caring for the most vulnerable groups have lost all respite and face to face support services for the entire year and many spending the entire year only with the person they care for to protect them from covid and seem to have been completely forgotten by everyone 🤷🏻‍♀️

Don't worry we're all in it together, the mps still got their annual pay rises...

DH has had his pay frozen for so long and the occasional crap rise he earns less than 2010 due to inflation...

We are categorically NOT all in this together. I can’t believe people are still trotting this out.

@Littleposh

There's a lot of people in all jobs that have had a massively reduced income this year, we're all in this together.

At the end of the day, a huge amount has been spent this year and it needs paying for somehow

We're not all in this together though, are we? Some of us are risking serious long term health problems by daily exposure to positive Covid cases while others are sitting pretty working from home, claiming tax back and receiving utilities payments. Others are endlessly furloughed.

So many people have lost their jobs and homes and face a grim future

The scale is different, but that is the case for so many people daily. Let's hope we are all more understanding of how 'the other half live'.

I have spent almost every working day visiting families in their homes since March. I am a social worker and we always seem to overlooked even though we are keeping the vulnerable in society safe.

@donquixotedelamancha

Every teacher I know either worked from Home doing a couple of hours a day or were pretty much furloughed - none worked unpaid/over time so I don't think you can apply the exemption to all teachers.

Pull the other one, it's got bells on. A lot of schools didn't have the gear/tech for remote learning at the start- so there certainly were frustratingly unproductive days but I don't see how you could know any teacher in a hot zone who isn't fucking close to breaking point.

Some of us worked unpaid all summer to get procedures in place. All of us worked from home and all of use have worked overtime to teach during the day and provide work for isolating kids at night. The additional workload created to try to keep schools safe is enormous.

This. I'm married to one.

If you want to live in a fairer country you need to get your passport out, though not as easy as before thanks to Brexit.

We're not all in this together though, are we? Some of us are risking serious long term health problems by daily exposure to positive Covid cases while others are sitting pretty working from home, claiming tax back and receiving utilities payments. Others are endlessly furloughed.
@SaltyAF

THIS!!

Also, these frontline workers are massively underpaid in the first instance, the comparison to private sector workers is actually incomparable. There are no "perks to working for the NHS, or emergency services, other than it's a calling and without those people, everybody who got paid to stay home this year could do just that... stay home and stay safe. So OP you are absolutely NBU!!

@ivfbeenbusy
I'm a teacher. I was working a 60-70 hour week during lockdown, including either training or planning content every day of the Easter holiday and May half term.
I'm not looking for any acknowledgment or appreciation, I'm sick of the constant 'teachers have had a six month holiday ' bollocks. I'm sure there are some who didn't put the hours in, but many of us did. I don't know one teacher who didn't.

Every teacher I know either worked from Home doing a couple of hours a day or were pretty much furloughed - none worked unpaid/over time so I don't think you can apply the exemption to all teachers.

Every teacher I know works before school, after school, in the evenings, at the weekends, during the holidays, both before Covid and now - and they don't get paid for ANY of that overtime. Teachers are only paid for the hours that the children are in school.

I work in the public sector. The last six months have been absolutely grueling. Government cuts over the last few years mean we are down to a skeleton staff. The threat of redundancy is permanent. We’ll be lucky if we don’t have to file a section 114 (which basically means we are bankrupt).

Having said all that, I am not bothered if I don’t get a pay rise. What bothers me is that most people still see us as ineffective, over-staffed and overpaid. It is so very far from the truth. And yet we are vilified every single day. The amount of abuse I get on a daily basis from members of the public is shocking. If I could afford to quit I would.

It bothers me that the Government are happy to use us as scapegoats. When the reality is that we out perform them at every turn. Our local council track and trace (using existing staff who do it on top of their normal job) has massively outperformed the national system. Our web team built a digital community hub in two days, developed online grant application forms for businesses with eligibility criteria set by the Government that were complex beyond belief. We built grant application forms for people self-isolating, communicated regulations to our residents that change on a daily basis sometimes. This has all been done by a team of one and a half people. We’ve supported thousands of residents and businesses who hold us in contempt. I’ve had emails telling me I’m thick, I am so useless I must be autistic, I should be sacked, I am a c**t. It’s truly exhausting.

I know it’s slightly off topic but it might make some people understand why some of us are upset at the pay freeze.

And I feel better for having got that off my chest!

It doesn’t surprise me but I’d think taxing everyone more and not freezing public sector pay would be fairer on the whole. Parts of the private sector have done very well out of lockdown. I’ve personally had a good year performance wise and a pay rise which is higher than many previous years but my company has made record sales through the pandemic so are in a very different position to lots of private sector businesses. I liked the proposal to eliminate national insurance and raise the basic tax rate to 32% so people with income from investments basically put same as people with income from employment.

I have not had a single pay rise that has met inflation in 10 years. In those 10 years only 2 have been without the threat of redundancy or restructure or pay regrading. For those 2 years I was on a fixed term contract. It is not a secure working environment with huge pay rises that seem to get reported by media outlets with a vested interest in the privatisation of the civil service or evidenced by a friend of a friend anecdote.

I've spent more time in a pay freeze than out of one in my career.

Sw.

I worked from 9am to 1am during lockdown until I had a mh breakdown and now I'm signed off.

Fucking fuck them - mps

It's disgusting isn't it!

The NHS have stepped up and absolutely should get at least normal pay rises. But so have all other services, and many other people.

What's so bad is that people training will have their pay frozen. DH is a police offices, so I know his circumstances. He earns £25k a year and over 7 years it increases (while training etc) to £40k. With the freeze he'll be stuck on £25k indefinitely. They don't do it for the money but seriously who could think this is ok at the moment!

Companies can only pay what they can afford but I hope the bosses of companies have a conscience and don't take more than they need without thinking of their staff.

sorry @Waxonwaxoff0

I’m full time public sector worker, very poorly paid and rely on universal credit top up. Mounting debts as struggle to afford bills each month despite working full time and not living lavishly.

Do I expect a pay increase in the middle of a recession? Absolutely not.

It’s tough yes but cuts need to be made somewhere. The government simply don’t have a bottomless pit of money to keep borrowing and borrowing. At the end of the day I consider myself lucky to have a job.

@lillg I'm sure this will 'only' apply to inflationary pay rises - your DH's pay increments should be safe.

Public sector workers bore the brunt of 10 years of austerity with either no pay rise or 1%, far below inflation.
Pension contributions have soared but the benefits from pension schemes have been reduced.
My pay is 20% lower than it should have been once the rate of inflation over the last 10 years is taken into account.

Now the chancellor is once again punishing the public sector with yet another pay freeze. If we were all in this together, there would be a tax rise which would affect everyone - we could all contribute to covid costs. Instead, the price will be paid by essential workers who have kept public services running throughout at great personal risk

@saltyaf it didn't only apply to inflationary last time there was a pay freeze (according to his colleagues) but we shall see. I was shocked when he told me today.

He's taking shared parental leave with me so it won't impact us too much either way!

Not disgusting, no.

Did you know that a lot of private sector employees have taken pay cuts sometimes of 25%+?

It's pretty awful for lots of people

I don't object to the pay freeze for most of us ( I'm a civil servant) but I do think the lowest paid public servants should get a pay rise - it's hard to manage if you're an EO or equivalent and ha e to pay rent/mortgage.

Once the train fares increase, it won't be worth me working in the nhs. My pay is 20% lower than 10 years ago, the stress is relentless, like many, I'll leave when this is over.