To think public sector workers

[firsttimemum77]

Are being 'punished' for mistakes made by bankers / previous government? I work for my LA and at the moment everything around making savings is centred around our jobs and salaries! People think we earn loads, get bonuses etc etc - I certainly don't and I work unsociable hours with no bonuses and a average wage which pays my mortgage and bills...

So AIBU to feel like this or do I deserve it because I work in the public sector!

Well it wasn't statutory when I had the DCs but even so, no-one would dream of taking it now. Gotta show your commitment, TFM ... Can't let leaky boobs get in the way of demonstrating energy and enthusiasm and general all-round zeal ...

YANBU.

I've worked in both sectors. I'm public now and have had below inflation pay rises for the whole 6 years I have been. I get no overtime, no flexitime and I pay for my pension. With my qualification level and experience I could double my pay in the private sector but I don't due to it being a vocation. The same is true of a huge amount of public sector workers.

For the record a trained monkey could not do my job and I find it deeply offensive that you would assume that possible of any public sector job.

I mentioend overtime because it was used earlier in the thread as something public sector workers get.

Are being 'punished' for mistakes made by bankers / previous government

stick with the latter. the previous government overspent - part of which was in public sector, and public sector salaries. this caused a defecit (the banks thing is a minor part of said defecit) which now has to be re-paid..partly through public sector cuts.

you had jam yesterday, now you'll get bread...(or possibly, public sector salaries have tracked higher than private, and there will be a rapprochement, more accurately, cos if you are at the sub 15k mark in public sector, that probably doesn't feel like jam...though tis better than being in the same job @14k in the private sector...at this level it will only feel like 'bread today, slightly less good bread tomorrow')

mentioned

Overtime is another red herring. Because some jobs, both private and public sector, have set hours, and some don't. So I don;t do overtime, but I started work at 7.30 am and am still going. Kind of. In another window . DH too is preparing a presentation and not looking on ebay. It's not overtime. It's just long hours.

The problem is there is no competition in the public sector, they are the same people as us, just not driven in the same way, coz it's all handed on a plate. "I worked bloody hard for my pension", "I do 1 hour extra overtime, you know"

So does everyone else!!!! and they are paying your pensions whilst no one is paying for theirs. If you don't care about us why should we pay for you

I take comfort from the fact that I know, at least, that I am delivering a service to the public and doing it well. I'd far rather that than be spending my days making something useless or selling something useless in order to feather the nests of shareholders.

yep, and most salaried work i have done meant overtime was done for free. (ie, the salary is for the job, and if you choose to do the job for more than the contracted hours, that's your look out...the pay remains the same...)

I'm a teacher, about to be made redundant, and I AM being paid statutory minimum. I live in London and I have many friends who work in banking/ law /the city who's bonuses alone are about 2/3 of my annual salary. They are not the top 5%, they are run of the mill investment banking staff. We can all tell tales about who is suffering the most. I pay into my pension and have done since I was 21. We have suffered in the public sector. I don't know anyone who hasn't. It shocks me when my friends moan about their salaries and I realise they are moaning because they aren't being paid their 5 figure bonus this year.

Driven Splodge, yes, just not by money. These debates force a focus on pensions, overtime etc. but those issues are not what drive people IME. At the end of the day, all my colleagues are driven by the same as me - the satisfaction of a job well done.

Noeyedear

But who else has been paying into your pension????? I think you'll find it's me

Okay so how much do you imagine someone has to earn to get into the 'top 5%' that has been oft-quoted on this thread.

No googling now. I'm really interested in your gut reactions.

£50k

Thiscis a fantastically amusing but also very scary expose of waste in the public sector.
Highly recommended
Am sorely tempted to do similar...

I am in the top 5%, or I was on the link that someone posted the other day. I earn in the region of 35K.

I think it's around £60K for people who are on PAYE. But I remember reading somewhere that the self-employed may well mess the figures up a bit.

TFM wins the prize article here, but checked the ONS data which confirms it

Around £60k gets you in the top 5%. Try supporting a family in central london on £60k. We're not talking a life of wine and roses.

So what would you like us to do to people who earn £60k? I caught the bit about taxing them until the pips squeek, but you really wouldn't have to squeeze very hard ...

But that article does go on to say that it's actually really difficult to tell what's going on, particularly in the upper reaches, owing to the opacity of the remuneration packages.

But this is all arse about face, frankly. None of this argument should be about penalising individuals in ordinary jobs - public OR private sector.

The kind of waste that Moondog is talking about is what should be targeted. Yes there are people in jobs that generate that kind of crap, but by getting rid of those jobs they could afford to recreate the real jobs that have been got rid of. The cuts need to fall at senior management level - I do realise those are real people as well, but they and their hair-brained schemes are the ones causing the problems.

The trouble is, we all know it'll be the real workers that get the brunt of it - not least because that will seems to be the preference of the general population as we're the ones seen to be scrounging. Just wait until the great British public notices a reduction in service - perhaps then they might make that elusive connection that those "scroungers" are actually the ones delivering your precious public services!

Well said gaelicsheep

yy, I agree with you about the way in which self-employed people are not properly taxed and the way in which packages obscure you

Gaelic - of course we'll see a reduction in the quality of public services. That's part of the deal. We will ALL have less money to spend and worse public services. This is because we have been overspending chronically.

Quattro - you should see the reactions of the public to our council's consultation on potential cuts. They genuinely don't seem to realise that services cannot be run on fresh air. They love the council tax freezes imposed by the Scottish Government, but no one seems to be willing to accept any cuts as a consequence. They all seem to think that cutting staff and pay is the only answer to the problem. I'm sure not all of the population is that stupid, but many are.

Of course, we all know that cutting staff = cutting services, but the public isn't getting that bit.

I worked in the public sector for AGES. If they just cut the number of feasibility studies for feasibility studies it would save billions.