truthseeker
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And thank you Caveat 
Public sector pay freeze for top 40,000 public servants announced
truthseeker
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Im in!
The public sector get a terrible bashing. I think its unfair. I dont believe that people set out to deliberately go into public sector jobs either, you'd swear there was a conspiracy out there where some people secretly decide to go into public sector jobs to annoy people in the private sector!!
And I didnt notice a similar bashfest from the public side when the private sector were cleaning up in the boom years.
Its the government people should direct their frustrations at - not individual workers in the public sector.
And I didnt notice a similar bashfest from the public side when the private sector were cleaning up in the boom years.
quote]
So now were onto private sector cleaning ladies...what are the equivalent PS sector cleaning ladies earning with the DB pensions, not to mention those dame little council vans and the raod sweepers that always seem to pull out in front of me!!
That's because it didn't happen. Before the boom the public sector was generally better paid than the private sector. During the boom years the gap was increasing, not decreasing.
Benchmarking (round one) came in before the crash, though the writing was on the wall even then, and plenty of us were saying that it was unjustified and would beggar the country in the long run.
truthseeker
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I dont agree with this - no one I know who works in the public sector matched the tripling salaries I saw around me in the private sector during the boom.
Hmm. Well if this guess is in any way accurate it makes Latrade's point...
...all the more pertinent.
A simple YES answer to a Are cuts required in the Public Service? question is very hard to say. The public service is so large and so diversified in what it does for every sector of Irish life, that simply saying cutting wages should apply to all in the public service is a question that cannot be answered with one word.
In saying that though, cuts are required, its as simple as that. We cannot afford to borrow what we currently are, but cuts are required everywhere!
But both Private and Public sectors should see these cuts together. The majority of the private sector have not seen any pay cuts (according to the ESRI), but every public servant has had a Pension Levy imposed on them which is a pay cut in a different name.
The ESRI has also recently stated that the public service should see further pay cuts of about 10% across the board but at the same time, unemployment benefit levels should be kept as they are.
Cuts must happen everywhere, at the moment the Public sector is being picked on, its easy to pick on them really. But everyone is being put into this one large box and marked with the same bright coloured pen which states "Public Sector worker - Pay Cut" without looking at what they do for society, what they give, what they contribute to the economy in taxes and other forms of income.
In saying that though, cuts are required, its as simple as that. We cannot afford to borrow what we currently are, but cuts are required everywhere!
But both Private and Public sectors should see these cuts together. The majority of the private sector have not seen any pay cuts (according to the ESRI), but every public servant has had a Pension Levy imposed on them which is a pay cut in a different name.
The ESRI has also recently stated that the public service should see further pay cuts of about 10% across the board but at the same time, unemployment benefit levels should be kept as they are.
Cuts must happen everywhere, at the moment the Public sector is being picked on, its easy to pick on them really. But everyone is being put into this one large box and marked with the same bright coloured pen which states "Public Sector worker - Pay Cut" without looking at what they do for society, what they give, what they contribute to the economy in taxes and other forms of income.
What about a bank employees levy? There is a strong case for applying e.g. a 20% levy/tax on all bank employees as to a greater or lesser extent, they all contributed to the banking crisis. Maybe 2% for every full year each individual was employed in banking between the years 1998 and 2008?
You may not agree with it but it is the case. A quick Google throws this up. I agree that the people who made the biggest killings were in the private sector but taking a broad view the public sector were the biggest winners from the boom.
If the banks can't pay their staff then they should cut wages/ numbers. The same goes for any private sector employer. The same goes for the government.
I was thinking more along the lines of making sure everyone who was in the industry that took us down takes some personal pain for their part in the downfall. Money should go to the exchequer and should be levied regardless of whether they are or arent still employed in banking.
You see now, I never said or implied that.
It was a very, very simple question (now even more simplified) to which there can easily be a YES or NO answer:
"The public sector - cuts are required"
I don't think the foot soldiers in the banks should be punished in some way. If the bank can't pay their wages without borrowing money then that's a different thing
Its a simple question alright but one that must be answered and qualified further though.
No, the follow on question; "what cuts are required", needs a long answer. The first one is just "yes" or "no".
Why must cuts happen everywhere? If an employer is profitable, forcing a pay cut on the employees out of some warped notion that they must share some pain, that just makes the employer more profitable - doesn't do a whole lot for the economy other than a bit of extra corporation tax.