Do you think this fair, blue light discount?

[MrsWaltonGoggins]

I tried to use my blue light card in a restaurant today, and they say they only accept it now if you have an nhs or military id. They said this is because they have teachers using the blue light and they believe it should be for healthcare workers only. I said that I am a nurse, I just don’t work for the nhs and don’t really think that’s fair.

Has anyone else come across this? Surely if you offer blue light discount it should be for anyone with a blue light card.

Ok, you think it's unfair the scheme exists at all?

Do you think that loyalty schemes such as Nectar points and various other supermarket discounts are unfair as well?

Or is it fair that Forces and their spouses and their children get discounted train tickets? But not NHS staff?

Public sector all my life, so I'm definitely not having a pop here. However, yes, as PP have said BLC is a private company, and other companies simply use it to virtue signal and create more profit. That's it really. BLC has absolutely nothing to do with whether people are valued, appreciated etc. It's marketing.

Thing is, a lot of folks in the public sector do feel that they are different and more deserving in some way or other, rightly or wrongly. But I think public attitudes are changing - for example passengers and patients have simply had enough of RMT, ASLEF, BMA action, etc. and can no longer tolerate their actions.

Why? Well, as PP have pointed out, many of the public see these folks as very well-paid, compared to the average income, with high job security, etc. So, I'm not having a pop - many folks in social care are very poorly paid for instance - but many people in professional roles are highly rewarded for their work and need to realise this.

Oh for goodness sake. The blue light card isn't a reward handed out on moral or philanthropic grounds. It's a commercial, profit-making company and nothing else.

All this arguing and debating about who 'deserves' it more, is pointless and divisive. I wish the thing didn't exist, frankly. All it does is upset people and turn family members and friends against each other.

Nobody gets annoyed because someone gets a discount because they're a member of the AA or the National Trust, or whatever company or organisation has come to an agreement with other companies to offer a discount. The whole 'BUT I DESERVE IT!' thing is pretty tasteless, tbh.

They should withdraw from offering it and just offer to military and NHS if they want, if it's part of a chain that's undoubtedly more tricky though. It's crap now as they've allowed too many people to join inevitably and predictably a lot of retailers have slashed the amount of discount they offer which is a shame mind.

Yes I do think they’re unfair.

That’s not the same as saying they shouldn’t exist.

Do I think it’s fair that someone who doesn’t wish to give all their information to a company to be able to get a club card, or someone who is on holiday here and doesn’t have a club card, or a child who is not old enough to get a club card has to pay more than the person behind them for the exact same item who does have a club card? No. I don’t think that’s fair.

Do I think they should get rid of club cards? Also no.

“Is this company utilising the scheme fairly?”

“The whole scheme is unfair so cannot be utilised fairly. It’s a privilege afforded to some not a right”

You “I don’t understand how that answered the question”

I don’t know what else to say.

I don't see why that's not fair - the supermarket is exchanging access to their customers information for a discount. It's quid pro quo.

TANSTAAFL

But that's the same for a lot in the private sector. I don't get where this idea that people working outside the public sector romp through pay bands, have private healthcare and bonuses and are paid thousands more than public sector workers. It just isn't true.
We need to engage critical thinking before parroting how hard-done-by public sector workers are. They really are not by comparison to most private sector workers, in my experience anyway (professional working for FSTE 100 corporate)

Not true. Teachers are paid for 195 days of work and the same 28 days holiday as everyone else, assuming you work full time. 190 of those days are in the classroom and 5 days are PD days. As those days don’t fall evenly across the year they are added up and then divided by 12 to give a monthly pay.

Bloody hell - all this complaining. It’s a £4.99 card that gives some discounts. It increases revenue for businesses - they’re not doing it for moral reasons. It’s for people like me who will be swayed by discounts e.g. there are two chain pubs near my house. One offers BL 15% discount on meals, one doesn’t. Last weekend we ate out as a family (11 of us). Of course we go to the one with a discount, they do this as they know the drinks bill will be huge!

Really? That’s strange - I have seen countless (and I do mean countless) posts on this site saying that teachers aren’t paid for the holidays? That they are paid for 39 weeks of term, approx 4 weeks of statutory leave, and the rest are unpaid?

A thread here with teachers saying they aren’t paid for approx 9 weeks of holidays, and that the salary they receive has already been pro-rata’d (just as I said).

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/4494245-are-teachers-paid-in-the-holidays

And here

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_staffroom/3573882-Are-teachers-paid-for-their-holidays

I could be here all day linking posts, but I won’t. Teachers are not paid for their holidays. They are paid for term time and for approx one month of statutory annual leave. The remaining approx 9 weeks are unpaid. The salaries they receive have already been pro-rata’d to account for this. If they were paid for the full year then their full time salaries would start at approx £38,000.

Teacher salaries in Scotland start at £40305 , after probation, rising to £50589. This is a very good wage and they are hardly pleading poverty. Principal teacher earn £55-£71k! I have no doubt it can be a challenging job but unlike true 'blue light' careers there's no shift work, unsocial hours, plus excellent holidays.

But back to the subject of the thread I believe the blue light discount has been widened too far now, and as a result some discounters are leaving the scheme (e.g. sports direct).

Yes. Teachers aren’t paid for the entire holidays. The holidays allowance is exactly the same as most people get.
The annual pay is divided by 12 and paid monthly.

The pay is not pro-rata though. If the starting wage is £31,000 you get £31,000. That is for 195 working days and 28 days holiday.

And notice that no one moaned and claimed it was unfair when opticians and dentists got it.

The advertised pay has already been pro rata’d down from a 52 week working year. 😊 Teachers are paid for approx 43 weeks. The remaining nine are unpaid. If they were paid for those nine weeks, then the starting salary would be a FTE of £38,000.

The original blue light employers were NHS, Police, and military. Where majority of the workforce did work in lower paid, front line work, shift work, risky work etc. There will always be outside of those parameters (such as dentists) but they do need a way to quickly assess entitlement to the card and employer is an easy way to do it. Now it feels like almost everyone had access and the discounts and disappearing or being diluted.

As an aside, most dentists and opticians didn't get blue light discount in the early days of the card as most are not employed by the NHS but are in private practice (e.g. boots opticians, vision express etc). My own dentist I'm treated on the NHS but she is employed by the practice not the NHS. Only NHS employed staff got the discount.

They are being unreasonable. But I don’t see why teachers should get it anyway. They should have a separate one.

Teachers do. Discounts for teachers gives much of the same discount codes.

Some teachers' posts in this thread have been breathtakingly entitled.

How so?

Cheeky F - if they are prepared to sell you a Blue Light Card (they aren’t free as I recall) there should be no caveats. I had one for 5 years but gave it up as it was a waste of space.