Anyone else fearful that the 5% pay cut given to Cabinet ministers will be passed down to all public sector workers?

[JackiePaper]

It's not looking good is it, both me and DH work in the public sector, and if we get 5% pay cuts, NI goes up 1%, Tax credits are cut and VAT increases to 20% i don't actually think we will be able to afford food

Ditto cargirl - do you work in my office?

We used to have a whole 10 quid per person for a xmas do but they scrapped that

And the way we have to fight to get the heating on!

Oh yes never ever had a Xmas do, we always pay for it ourselves, and because we're a public service we have to work Xmas eve, new yrs eve etc, we don't get to close early and have a do down the pub
don't get free parking or gym either
I love competitive crap jobs !!

:O he got biscuits riven?

See now I'm jealous

Lots of scientists/very highly qualified people in my area of work and a lot of them are on the same grade as me!

Moving services into the community puts extra pressure on front line staff who are expected to do more with less. There is already a bed crisis - I dread to think what will happen if even more services are moved into the community. In my job it will mean more deaths. The NHS may not be as efficient as it could be but any effective stategies to make it more efficient need to be really carefully considered. You can't just cut services without putting contingency measures in place. The politicians/senior management who make these decisions are hopelessly out of touch with how the systems work and imho stack up debt/problems for the future.

The private sector has taken the bulk of job losses and pay cuts so far. The public sector has to take its share.

It is well known that in the 1970s it was the private sector that took the pain too and unionised labour in nationalised industry and the public sector were protected.

The pain has to be shared and especially at the top of the pay scale where senior public sector salaries have gone up a lot.

There is deflation in wages already in the private sector and this will now spread to public sector wages. This will inevitably result in a fall in all prices of goods and assets. This will mark the beginning of the deflationary spiral that will inevitably end in a huge Depression as asset values plunge below the value of the debts secured on them.

Keeping your job on a lower salary in a deflationary depression is your bonus.

For any in the private sector complaining about the public sector being better off, and vice versa:
Please keep in mind that the lower end of the public sector and the lower end of the private sector are equally struggling, whereas some in the private sector are doing very well, just as some in the public sector are...

Highlighting the perks of those in the "other" sector compared to your own really only distracts from the real issues. Such as increasing pay gaps within both the public and the private sectors.

I can't completely shake the feeling that playing off the workers against the workers (public vs. private) is at least partially a conscious strategy to distract from such issues.

AuntieMaggie after that last comment perhaps we do!

£10 was before my time, best we got was £2 per head when we got awarded Investors in People.

We are the worst paid per grade in DEFRA!!!

We on acres and acres of land hence free parking even though there isn't enough IYSWIM

We used to have tennis courts, football pitch and a goat paddock

Public sector- Our budgets are determined on only 90% staff wages as they expect to be understaffed. Maternity not covered,sickness not covered, no bonuses, xmas parties. We have limited parking but only because we are essential car users (not enough spaces for us all to be in the office at once-actually not enough desks/phones etc either).

But beenbeta in my sector we've been through three staff reviews with many redundancies and forced early retirements , and had pay freezes in the last five yrs

I do agree with Meita though that it is daft to compare ourselves
but some of the comments about how we have to pay blah blah when we already have been irk me

The first of many I guess

I agree that there are huge salaries within the public sector but the people at the bottom end are paid a pittance and unlike the private sector there is no hope of negotiation for a bonus/pay rise if you've done particularly well, or say qualified as an accountant, nor is there much/any regional difference in pay so in the SE in particular you are very poorly paid but if you work say in the NE you've have a well paid secure job.

compo - redundancy and forced early retirement and short tim eworking are common plac ein te private sector. Having your pay frozen and keeping your job is a luxury in some parts of the private sector.

Pay cuts are common across the private sector now.

So it's just the same in the private and public sector

so why do people keep saying 'it's your turn now to suffer' when we already are!!

Bonus?
Well today my bonus was looking in to the eyes of somebody I'm really quite fond of and seeing only despair and panic looking back at me.

I don't give a fig about pay cuts. It happens, it will be hard (both dh and I are NHS employees) but we'll manage. I don't care about it because you can't pay me enough anyway to do and see and be what I am.

My salary puts shoes on my childrens feet and buys holidays and nice things and pays bills but it isn't what I'm worth. The NHS is massively in my debt already - and in debt to every single one of my amazing colleagues who keep gritting their teeth and making things happen. So we'll add a bit more to the debt - meh.

I would rather have a pay cut than turn somebody away from treatment. These are tough times but not that tough.

BTW - I'm an NHS manager, we're not all souless wastes of space

Having your pay frozen and keeping your job are also co sidered luxury in the public sector
you see what I mean?!!

Actually who we should really rant is companies the likes of Tesco, making huge profits and treating their staff like sh*t

The thing that will go, for sure, is public sector pensions. I'm personally quite sorry about that as DH works in the public sector, but it's inevitable IMO.

DH's pension costs him 4% of his salary

My pension (in the private sector) costs me 20% of mine. Big difference

CarGirl: do you or have you ever worked for Tesco? Just as a matter of interest.

What about private sector such as footballers!

My friend works in the private sector doing 3x8 hours shifts and was told she was being changed to work 6 x 4 hour shift to remove to need for her to have breaks. . So no breaks and double travel expenses on the minimum wage.

Soon need to take your own loo roll in.

Not recently Vic, at our local store there is consistently not enough staff (no store vacancies it's not a recruitment issue), new staff all employed on completely flexible hours etc etc etc. In the post office section they have been understaffed since it opened because it doesn't bring them in enough profit!

well I have paid for my pension for nearly 20 years. I don't see how they can change the terms now.