Union willing to fight for civil servants' pay rises
PLYMOUTH union leaders have said senior managers deserve pay rises despite a pay freeze imposed by the Government.
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, yesterday announced a pay freeze for thousands of senior civil servants, NHS managers, judiciary and military top brass under moves aimed at saving £3billion over the next three years.
-
Mr Brown said that GPs and dentists will also have their pay frozen after a recommendation from the independent salary review body.
The move came on the heels of a two-day strike in the city by public sector workers from the city’s courts, job centres, benefits offices and tax centres.
Martin Menear of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) in Plymouth said: “In principle I believe that everyone is entitled to a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
“When costs go up, so should wages.
“I don’t see why low-paid public servants should be made to pay for the problems caused by bankers who are still getting their multi-million pound bonuses. It’s an outrage.
“If any of these senior civil servants are members of our union, we’ll be fighting to get them the pay rise they deserve.”
Plymouth public sector workers joined hundreds of thousands of their colleagues from around the country in this week’s strike in a national dispute with the Government over redundancy payments.
Mr Menear called on the Government to come back to the negotiating table.
NHS managers and consultants, judges, senior military staff, GPs and dentists, and senior Whitehall civil servants, are among those covered by the Senior Salaries Review Body report released yesterday.
The review body has already been told by the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, that there should be no pay rise for those groups of employees because of the recession and the state of the public finances.
26 Comments
View all
by stuart, plymouth
Thursday, March 11 2010, 11:06PM
“Cheers 'worker' for the heads up with Lidl and Primark,i shall see them tomorrow...though i will have to get out of bed...hang on,nope cant do it!
Seriously thats handy info i will contact them ta.Re the slackers,yes there are too many of them,far too many,the ysystem needs changing properly;hopefully i dont come into that bracket.To be honest if im not at work..other than a bit of spare time i get bored senseless,i cant see the attraction personally of not working month in month out..or year in year out.”
by Worker, Cornwall
Thursday, March 11 2010, 4:59PM
“Lovely Civil Servant job, index linked pension, 30 days hol, sick pay. Your pay rise is our tax increase.
By the way Lidl are taking on as well as Primark.
The bus co's always have a turn over, but like most jobs you have to get out of bed.”
by tom, south hams
Thursday, March 11 2010, 4:25PM
“the problem exists because we have a proportion of the population as you mention polperro who won't work regardless of the economic climate.
The reason they won't work is because due to the fact that they have few or no qualifications and are not prepared to better themselves to get a well paid job and see themselves above any kind of work that is classified as menial or low paid.
They spend so much time watching MTV and reading chavvy celeb mags that their reality becomes jarred.
Instead they blame the problems of foreign immigration and bang on about the BNP, taking out their fustration either on professionals from outside the uk who have worked hard to get where they are, or fruit picker etc from poland who are prepared to do the jobs they won't.
People need to accept that this country owes you nothing and that you are in charge of your own destiny.”
by KH, polperro
Thursday, March 11 2010, 3:14PM
“Not tarring everybody with the same brush at all Stuart and as Tom said there are jobs out there.
This country has a REAL problem, with the long term unemployed, not people such as yourself that have recently lost their job, but those that have done sod all for years, even when the country was booming.
And the £64 a week isn¿t the whole story as potentially you¿ll get various other things paid for, rent, council tax, etc.
And yep it¿s picking season, and you¿ll see the city centre full of people bumming around doing nothing and yet we¿ll be importing Eastern European labour to do the picking! Whilst the same people moan that the Eastern Europeans are taking ¿their¿ jobs, these being the jobs that they aren¿t prepared to do of course.”
by tom, south hams
Thursday, March 11 2010, 2:38PM
“pretty much anyone can get a job if they want one, its just wether or not they are preapred to lower their percieved standards.
Mc donalds are advertising in plymouth as we speak, they will give you a job”