Support for the Public sector workers?

[Tom Bombadil]

I'm very conscious of the difference between "professionals" and low paid staff.

I'm currently working for a voluntary sector organisation that does a lot of contract work for the public sector.

When I first arrived, I was horrified to discover that we employed two dozen dedicated people with responsible (and difficult) part-time jobs, and we were paying them the National Minimum Wage, with no pension provision at all.

We've now managed to raise wage levels so that this group of people is getting the minimum local government pay for staff aged 21 and over.

What I do know, though, is that the answer to the crisis in local government funding isn't to reduce people's pay and conditions to the worst that can be found in the private sector. Nor is it to tell low paid public sector staff that they should shut up, because things could be worse.

Congratulations on your achievements. Now back to what I was saying. We cannot afford (both public and private) the pension provisions that were enjoyed by the previous generation. We are all living too long, so we have to pay more or work longer or accept lower benefits. This is an unavoidable and sad fact of life. What is important is that any changes that are made are consistently applied and one group of workers are not forced to accept a worse deal than another.
At the moment workers in the private sector who have already lost their final salary pension schemes find it difficult to sympathise with those who are striking over this issue. However I personally support them because of the uneven way this is being implemented. The government are picking on the soft targets.