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Pay Freeze For Public Workers


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HOLA441
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HOLA445
They'll be lucky to get away with a freeze when the private sector is taking 20% cuts.

Data ?

Is it so that the the entire private sector is taking a 2% cut ? I don't seem to be. Most people I know seem to be getting a small or zero pay rise; some are taking cuts, for sure, but not all.

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HOLA446
Guest absolutezero
A lot of firms have cut hours etc and have not become front line news because they are smaller companies,

a lot of low paid will get some of thier cuts made up by tax credits etc.

Most public sector workers have had below inflation pay rises (i.e. cuts) for years....

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HOLA447

and cutting the 10p rate of income tax is actually

a rise of 150% (?) on the lowest earners of our society

the ones who actually do get off there erses

rather than chavdole it out

and the 40% to 50% rate rise is .......?

stop talking about "cutting" this rate and talk about the hypocrisy

of the NuLabour movement

Browns next claim will be that people are contributing more

to society than ever before and and and this is a good thing

If Cameron cant nail him on this and his doing whats best for hard working familys

the party of the many, and the do nothing party opposite jibes

he's in the wrong job

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HOLA448
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Will it happen?

Probably. Most negotiations seem to be around RPI. As this is now around zero, pay freezes could be ahead.

The problem for the next government will be how to implement pay reductions. They'll need these to reduce public sector spending. But there again it is hugely deflationary. The multiplier effect onto consumption of reducing wages in the public sector [as well as the reductions we are seeing the private sector - bank bonuses aside] means a weakened economy for years.

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HOLA449
Probably. Most negotiations seem to be around RPI. As this is now around zero, pay freezes could be ahead.

The problem for the next government will be how to implement pay reductions. They'll need these to reduce public sector spending. But there again it is hugely deflationary. The multiplier effect onto consumption of reducing wages in the public sector [as well as the reductions we are seeing the private sector - bank bonuses aside] means a weakened economy for years.

the plan wil be to cut public sector pay as private sector is recovering, thereby balancing each other out, I guess

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HOLA4411

Why is the Observer calling it a `threat ` ?

When theres even companys such as BP ( which recently announced massive profits ) operating a pay freeze for employees in 2009 as well as scrappping their pension scheme - and many other companys doing similar then the least we can expect is for the Public sector to follow suit ...

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HOLA4412
15329372.jpg

Will it happen?

It will ALL happen. You mark my words.

The state is going to undergo a major collapse in size and scope - we simply cannot afford even half of it. They (we) will not just let it happen however, we will destroy the currency and most of the remaining bit of the economy that works in the process of trying to maintain status quo.

Dig in. We have had the tremors, 2007, 2008, now the finale is heading our way into 2010.

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HOLA4413
On the same note will they freeze benefits and more to the point for this forum housing allowance?

Effectively that's already happening. Most benefits are uprated every April in line with the Rossi index (RPI less housing costs). for the previous September -- that's likely to be negative unless inflation takes off. The rates of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) are set monthly to cover an average rent for the area (excluding upmarket property). In most areas rents are now static or falling so LHA rates should follow the market down.

Edited by CrashConnoisseur
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HOLA4415

And to think they went to all the effort of negotiating 3 year pay deals.

Cutting wages could mean Labour lose union support.

The Guardian, Wednesday 9 January 2008

The government moved urgently yesterday to open talks on three-year pay deals in the public sector, initially focusing on teachers, nurses and the police, as it began a determined effort to contain inflationary pressures.

The plan, leading to talks as early as this week, was unveiled by the prime minister at a press conference in which he indicated he wanted to keep pay awards again within 2% a year, saying this was the expected inflation level at the end of 2008.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/ja....publicservices

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HOLA4416

They could consider the bizarro plan.. increase everyone in the public sectors wages by £4,000 next year. Since there is 5.5 million people directly employed by the state that would cost £22 billion. But hey they are already looking to run a deficit of £220 billion this year. So whats another 10% on there.

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HOLA4417
the plan wil be to cut public sector pay as private sector is recovering, thereby balancing each other out, I guess

Great, more people getting sacrificed for the mistakes of the private sector. Roll on another winter of discontent...

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HOLA4418
They could consider the bizarro plan.. increase everyone in the public sectors wages by £4,000 next year. Since there is 5.5 million people directly employed by the state that would cost £22 billion. But hey they are already looking to run a deficit of £220 billion this year. So whats another 10% on there.

Actually this is how I thought they would feed the monopoly money they are printing into the economy based on the fact that this is how they did it in Zimbawe (who are ahead of the curve in economic terms)

Cutting the wages of a huge proportion of the population will really boost the housing market and all the banks' bad loans will suddenly disappear and Gordon Brown will be hailed as Saviour of the World and voted in for another 12 year term.

Or maybe not.

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HOLA4421
They'll be lucky to get away with a freeze when the private sector is taking 20% cuts.

A recent HPC poll showed that more people had actually received pay rises in the last twelve months. Private sector workers taking cuts of 20% are few and far between - but when they do happen they are reported in the media like they're the norm.

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HOLA4422
Laughable, really, how people want to punish the public sector for economic damage done largely by the private sector.

i agree to some extent but there's not any alternative. and it won't lead to any real suffering whilst inflation remains relatively low.

i'd start with the NHS GPs, ludicrous that they their average earnings have breached six figures... there are around 100,000 of them, earning an average of over £100k, i'd happily strip each and every one of them of £10k each and feel that a billion pounds a year had been saved in an entirely painless fashion.

Edited by the flying pig
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HOLA4423
In what way is a bloated and inefficient public sector a mistake of the private sector?

Bloated and inefficient? Could just as easily apply to the banking idustry - or pretty much any private sector industry.

Yes, the public sector, like the private sector, needs a trim, but a blanket pay freeze will do nothing but breed resentment and create industrial strife. OK, nurses and NHS staff rarely strike, but police, teachers, fire fighters, etc, are quite happy to down tools on a large scale.

To adjust the public finances they just need to stop squandering money on ID cards, pointless and irresponsible wars and local councils spending thousands taking people to court for non-crimes.

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HOLA4424
i agree to some extent but there's not any alternative. and it won't lead to any real suffering whilst inflation remains relatively low.

i'd start with the NHS GPs, ludicrous that they their average earnings have breached six figures... there are around 100,000 of them, earning an average of over £100k, i'd happily strip each and every one of them of £10k each and feel that a billion pounds a year had been saved in an entirely painless fashion.

I can see your point - ten grand is neither here nor there when you're earning in excess of 100K (unless you are MEW'd up to your eyeballs on a "portfolio" of BTL properties) - but I think there are better ways of reducing public expenditure than cutting (or freezing) workers' salaries. Although GPs rarely strike, pay cuts - of any magnitude - would breed resentment.

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HOLA4425
lfs3.gif

So it looks that public sector wages held steady while private sector wages where driven down.

That can be explained by the fact that the private sector has little union density protecting wages and conditions

from the effects of globalisation and neo liberal policies. When you factor in that pensions are just defered wages

and that employers are ending pension schemes in the private sector the situation is much worse for

workers in the private sector.

The answer is not to drive public sector workers wages down as well but to drive private sector wages and conditions back up.

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