For some reason I forgot to take a picture of this lunch time fringe? First off was UNISON Assistant General Secretary, Karen Jennings, who opened this important fringe on Pay & Privatisation by making the arguments against the lies and propaganda of the Daily Mail & Taxpayers (aka Evaders) Alliance and dispel the myth that in the public sector "pay" is more than in the private sector. You have to measure like with like. A recent report by Swansea University showed that in the public sector workers are actually paid 2% less than in the private sector. You need to fully job evaluate jobs in both sectors to properly compare. If you do this you see massive pay advantages in the private sector and especially in manufacturing.
Remember it is a fiction that the public sector are paid more.
UNISON National officer Gavin Edwards from the "Bargaining and Support unit" detailed what they can do to help branches and stewards. You can get background information and local reports on private sector bidders for public contracts and find out what has gone wrong with these contractors elsewhere. Email the unit and you will get a report back also they have access to the IDS pay data base so you can compare and contrast pay rates.
11 comments:
It's equally misleading to deny that for certain occupational groups there is a public sector pay premium e.g. social care and cleaning. Although these areas are being subjected to outsourcing and consequential pay cuts.
And given that the public sector is 53% organised compared to 14% density in the private sector this is hardy a line of argument which reflects well on trade union bargaining capabilities.
well anon surely on your logic this so called "public sector premium" is down to a higher trade union density?
The higher the trade union density the better the deal unions can get for their members.
The reality for cleaners in the public sector is that they are barely above the living wage. Hardly a premium in that sense.
While in the private sector cleaners are mostly on the minimum wage whose poverty pay employers are being subsidised by the taxpayer.
John you conveniently forgot to mention that public sectors workers appear to be immune from economic recessions. This fact is the most disturbing. Shouldn’t public sector workers be put on a 5 year contract? You might find that to be a strange request but for someone who’s experienced the almost non-stop mass unemployment since 1980, I don’t. In a time of cut-backs why don’t the government and opposition do something about sharing Tax Payers money more equally? Why should the same families appear to benefit most in being employed by the state, this nepotism is blatantly obvious to anyone who looks into it.
Hi anon
Sorry but this is just simply wrong. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2236301/660-000-public-sector-workers-lost-jobs-Coalition-came-power.html
660k jobs have been lost in the public sector in this bankers recession. 3 years of public pay freeze and years of below inflation rises has led to a 15% cut in real terms in local government pay.
Yes, lets share tax payers money more equally by not subsidising employers who pay poverty wages, higher rate pension tax relief and bogus self employment.
"Shouldn’t public sector workers be put on a 5 year contract?"
To achieve what?
' Anonymous said...
"Shouldn’t public sector workers be put on a 5 year contract?"
To achieve what?'
More equality for a start...We have OVER 350.000 people being forced to work for their unemployment benefit, some of these people are only getting £70 per week. There is resentment growing because people are aware that road sweepers and bin men are getting over £400 per week, I know some graduates who would love to be a road sweeper and it's no joke.
Hi anon
The average wage for a man in this country is over £600 per week. So it would seem that "road sweepers and bin men" are paid far less than other jobs.
I would indeed welcome more equality in wages for the public sector and hope that their wages are raised to that of the private sector.
I’m not against public sector workers getting a reasonable wage, with job security, good for them. Pity the rest of us don’t experience the same pleasure. I’ve tried to get a public sector job but never seem to get one. My wife also tried and she’s very qualified but didn’t get one either but others did, less qualified than her. What I don’t like, in 1980 I was getting 1/3rd more than council workers, ‘being a skilled man I thought I was entitled to that difference’.. Nowadays, if I manage to find a job and they are always temporary, I’m lucky if I get 2/3rds the council wage. Considering it’s the taxpayer that pays public sector wages I and 1000s like me are amazed that public sector wages and conditions, job security ect is so far ahead of the private sector. After all, what wealth do public sector workers create? Modern Britain is like the old USSR, very similar. It’s got to the stage that unemployed graduates, people with degrees, skilled workers who have served apprentices are being forced onto job schemes. Job schemes that are no more than modern slavery but without the chains. Forced to work for £70, living on toasted bread and beans, clothe themselves with second-hand cast offs, freezing in the winter and amazed by watching demonstrations by public sector workers, holding placards ‘poverty wages’ we want a rise, we want a bigger pension…Stunned by the complete indifference, ignorance of the true conditions and wages that millions of us have to live with. We really have created a two tier workforce, everyone, including the public sector workers is aware of the situation. A two tier society, a two tier life expectancy, a two tier hope and expectation. Is it any wonder everyone I know can’t stand politicians? We live in interesting times. I never once thought that things would ever be as bad as this. No unions, no political party, no voice.
Anyway, have a nice day John.
Hi anon
Sorry but this is just not true. The money in the public sector is not great and there is certainly no job security.
You are simply wrong about public sector pay and conditions. Who has held placards asking for "bigger pensions" for crying out loud?
The real problem is that there is a race to the bottom in pay for the private and the public sector. We should not join this race. The rich do not.
Everyone deserves a fair days pay for a fair days work everywhere.
The real problem is political. we need to change our society to reduce income inequality across the board. This is the only answer.
Cuts and privatisation, it couldn't be worse. Mr Grayling is destroying the entire CJS with cuts and privatisation to prisons, Courts, Probation, etc. He even thinks the awful work programme is a good model to replicate. There's even a song about his injustice by probation officers - It's Criminal - The Probation Song Against Privatisation (Youtube)
great video anon - posted
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