Another Surrey Shrimper
Life President
For Osy:Osy, why not just quit while you are behind?
Even your lefty mates have given up on you.
‘call off the strike, we are still negotiating’ – this doesn’t work as laws on striking means your ballot has a use by date on the strike and if you miss it then the strike is illegal, so when the date of 30[SUP]th[/SUP] was announced that was the cut off point and a delay would be months due to the lead in times by law.
Public / private wage comparison has been affected by many of the lowest paid public sector jobs being taken over by contractors. Also in times of high unemployment (now) private sector wages for the lowest paid go down as there is a surplus of labour. Public sector are better protected against this as they are generally unionised and therefore have a collective voice.
‘You should be happy you’ve still got a job’, really? If you are employed at a certain rate and benefits and without negotiating your terms are changed would you really be so weak as to just accept it? If they want to change the contracts of certain jobs then do that for new employees and if you still attract the right candidates then all well and good. But if someone has worked for 10, 20, 30 years on the agreement of certain level of pension at the end of it – to change that is unfair and I would be surprised if it is legal.
‘Public pensions come out of our taxes’ – no they don’t, they come out of the pension investment that public sector employees and employers have paid into as a form of wages for however long they have worked there. You can’t take money out of a pension fund, that’s theft – Robert Maxwell did that and had to fake his own death and take up a job in a chip shop with Elvis.
‘Making the public sector pay more into their pensions will help us out of national debt’ – no it won’t because the sums involved are tiny, and with high inflation and frozen wages some will have to stop paying into their pension and the reduction in funds going in means the pot shrinks and the investment makes less and then the pension fund can not cover those that are still in it. Those who had to opt out will be the lowest paid and when they retire they will then rely on state benefits which do come directly from our taxes.
At the same time executive pay is still going up, celebs from Lewis Hamilton to Bono to Mrs Phillip Green are at home for the exact amount of time for them to claim to live somewhere else and massively underpay their tax, banks are still using tax loopholes to underpay by millions, and the other public servants - the MPs pay and pensions are untouched by austerity.
Public v Private workers is a very convenient distraction. I’m 40 and always worked in the private sector and started paying in to a pension (this is the first time my employers have) 6 months ago. To anyone who had been paying in for the last 20 years like I should have done I say – stand up for yourselves because my pension is going to leave me very poor and it would give me no pleasure to know others are not adequately covered.