[Misc] Will the Unions bring everyone to their knees?

[Da Man Clay]

have you checked that number, based on personal or unverified source? for interest i've looked at payscales for local government, nurses and teachers and it does not look accurate. i was actually surprised, that upto 2021 they've broadly kept pace with inflation. might well be more applicable in private sector, more difficult to find clean data, though ONS data shows median hourly earnings (figure 1) have gone up ~22% which is about same as inflation over the period.

I used to work in public service until fairly recently. I can assure you that it has not kept pace with inflation. I had several years of pay freeze and then capped 1% pay awards. For my area of public service between 2011 and 2020 cost of living rose 27.6% and pay awards amounted to 12.2%. Only in 2020 did it match/increase inflation - we received an award of 2.5% compared to 1.5% of inflation.

 

[rippleman]

Ex who works in Civil Service has just been told they’re getting 2%, so a further real terms pay cut of 7%.

Given the crap service now being delivered by so many government departments they are lucky to be getting that. HMRC staff still sat on their arses at home whilst small businesses are made to wait months for tax repayments they desperately need to be able to keep going. Shameful behaviour.

It's the public service workers I want to see get a decent pay deal. NHS workers, fire, armed services, care sector workers.

If we clapped them, then they should get a decent wedge.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Given the crap service now being delivered by so many government departments they are lucky to be getting that. HMRC staff still sat on their arses at home whilst small businesses are made to wait months for tax repayments they desperately need to be able to keep going. Shameful behaviour.

My view is it's not that staff are 'sat on their arses at home' more that they are chronically understaffed and not given the training, tools and/or processes to do their job efficiently; this is my experience.

 

[usernamed]

Given the crap service now being delivered by so many government departments they are lucky to be getting that. HMRC staff still sat on their arses at home whilst small businesses are made to wait months for tax repayments they desperately need to be able to keep going. Shameful behaviour.

It's the public service workers I want to see get a decent pay deal. NHS workers, fire, armed services, care sector workers.

If we clapped them, then they should get a decent wedge.

The problem is that the very same small business owner who takes satisfaction from the Civil Service getting yet further pay cuts, is also reliant on customers who have money in their pockets and are willing to spend it.

The public sector is by far Britain’s biggest employer, meaning the small business owner’s victory is a pyrrhic one, as they celebrate an ever shrinking potential customer base.

You may have strong views on the ‘deserving’ and the ‘undeserving’ (I find so many people do) but your argument is economically illiterate and will eventually beggar not just your small business but thousands of others as well.