The public sector can look forward to "inflation busting" pay increases while the private sector struggles.
NHS staff, police officers and teachers were all told yesterday that their awards will be met in full - on the day the Retail Prices Index, which is used to set pay rises, fell to zero for the first time in 49 years.
Nice for them - not so nice for those of us in the private sector whose pockets are being picked to service these arrangements. Still, no one minds teachers, coppers and nurses getting more money, do they?
Meanwhile, senior civil servants earning up to £200,000 a year are pressing for a 3 per cent increase in the pay pot used to boost their salaries.
Officials from their union, the First Division Association, claim the boost is needed for around 4,000 Whitehall staff on at least £60,000 because their pay lags behind equivalent posts in the private sector.
Fine - go and get a job in the private sector, then. Oh, there aren't any. Nor do you get the security, fat pension and the opportunity to retire at 60 either.
John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: 'The public sector is at present an entirely recession-free zone.
Recession free? Hey, it's still boom time at the public sector trough - it's just a question of how many more people can stuff their snouts in it before the private sector is sucked completely dry.
Last week, official figures showed that 30,000 jobs were created in the public sector last year, while 105,000 were lost in the private sector.
Not too long at that rate. Enjoy it while you can, public sector piggies - the revolution is coming.
2 comments:
God, I hated the seventies the FIRST time around...!
Really? I loved them - but then I was 9 when they started and 19 when they finished. I didn't give a monkeys about politics, economics or any of that grown up stuff and for a kid of my age growing up in the seventies was totally fantastic.
And, to be honest, if we had the public sector we had then instead of the one we have now (but not the powerful unions and their militancy) the future would be a lot brighter.
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