An0n0m0us

A friend of mine is an electrician who is self employed/runs his own company. He does lots of council contracts because of the astonishing amount of money that gets thrown at him. The example he gave me was just recently he had a phone call from one of the councils he does work for wanting one of their council houses rewired. Now he would normally charge £2.5k for this but because he didn't want the job instead of saying no and losing any more calls he quoted £6.5k just to not get the work. 10 minutes later they called him back and said when can he do it!!! He was gobsmacked. He paid someone else to do it and got the materials for them and he got over £4k for answering a phone call and ordering some materials!

The point is the councils waste money like it grows on trees and couldn't give a flying **** because it's not their money. Then when it comes to council tax renewal time they plead poverty and just whack it up to pay for their total inefficiency at their jobs or any sort of budgetary control. I have absolutely no sympathy for the public sector what so ever.

All I knowis I wish i'd become an electrician when I left school. This bloke has paid off two mortgages and is sitting on so much cash he doesn't have time to spend it because he keeps raking in the council jobs one after the other.

David Lock

1) There seems to be a glaring omission in the poll in that it doesn't seek the thoughts of the "I am NOT in work and desperately trying to find a job?"

2) In the spirit of Cameron's "Big Society" why didn't the Tories suggest that folk not working offer to look after a neighbour's kids for the day if the mum or dad would otherwise be forced to take a day off?

dl

Luan Pra bang

I agree with the sentiment that the public sector should have great big fat pensions, however why should the private sector not get the same, lets have a proper state pension that is equal for all, 15k a year flat rate for all British born citizens who have worked for a minimum 80 percent of their adult lives. Clearly we should pay some extra tax we might have to raise the basic income tax level to 50% and the top tate would be 60% but I figure we deserve it. The public sector will then all be happy after all, its not like the public sector expect the private sector to work themselved to the bone untill the age of 67 just to help pay the wages and pensions of a loads of workshy scumbags who spend most of the time on the sick. Or is that exactly what they want ?

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Er.... where did I say I am looking for a scapegoat? I said there isn't enough money for things to carry on as they are. Doesn't matter who you blame or how much you moan that is a cast iron fact!

In very simple terms the public sector are paid by a 'company' that can no longer afford to give them their original terms. They have two choices ...accept a reduction in those terms or insist the 'company' keeps paying them on the levels they desire and hence the 'company' goes bust.

Now neither scenario is ideal, but I know which one I'd take!

Oh and as I'm self employed I'm already bending over to keep the country afloat... but unlike the public sector I am not downing tools and having a strp about it!

dpb

Passed small groups of protesters while passing through Brighton earlier and held up briefly by a pretty inconsequential jobsworth march

Im quite sure they know theyre being unrealistic , but theyll protest anyway just incase the government moves a couple of iotas

cuprajake

iTrader: (11)

if i understand correctly, the are trying to alter pensions of workers,

while i dont like strike action its some times needed to get a point across,

i feel that changing someones contract when they have already put money into the scheme is naughty, i think they should keep current workers on wht they were originally, then new employees move onto the altered rate.

edited just to add,

i nor my staff have had payrises to speak of, times a veryhard, its about time they woke up and realised its a hard world to live in,

TinyTim

iTrader: (3)

And who's choice was that? Go and work for the public sector if they get it so easy.

I'm sorry but while this government gives hand-outs to jobless scroungers and lets immigrants flood in with no benefit to the economy, I think they've got every right to fight for what was contracted to them.

As for 'Us paying their wages', Please. That argument is older than time itself. If you look at it that way, I pay for your bins to get collected. So what? It's all relative.

And lastly regarding the argument that some teachers are rubbish, some doctor/nurses are rubbish' - yeah, and that doesn't happen in the private sector does it, because everyone's perfect there.

TelBoy

You're playing hardball on this, Christ knows why. There is a MASSIVE difference between terms of employment in the public vs private sector. Even the most militant would recognise that. If you under-perform in the private sector, you aren't rewarded. That is patently NOT true in the public sector, please don't kid yourself it isn't the case.

Dr.No

^^^ what he said...

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Which bit of I'm not having a strop about it did you not understand? Where did I say they have it too easy? I think you should learn to read other people's posts and digest them before starting to type in the future ..... 'sweetheart'

Not sure what any of this has to do with me as I didn't say anything to do with any of that, maybe some education in forum quotation etiquette wouldn't be a bad thing either

jasey

There's a reason it's older than time.

IT'S ******* TRUE.

These ***** should just be happy I aint in charge. Maggie was a ***** !

Iain Young

Actually you pay for all bins to be collected (including your own). As far as my taxes go. They pay for your pension. How much of your taxes go to pay for my private pension?

Fact is that public sector workers do not generally get paid any less than those in the private sector (as proved by the Hutton report), and they get much better pensions on top of this. I work in the private sector, and if I wasn't ploughing a large percentage of my wage packet into a private pension every month, I wouldn't have one at all (just the state pension). As a result, my take home pay is less than I could earn in the public sector.

My wife (a teacher) is paid a lot less than me and works less hours, yet can look forward to a much better pension than me (even after the new deal). Is that fair in your eyes?

There are rubbish people everywhere. The difference is that they tend to get sacked in the private sector, whereas it's much more difficult to do this in the public sector because of the union involvement.

Luan Pra bang

Tiny tim would you be happy to pay a much higher rate of tax so there was equality between private and public sector pensions ?

DYK

They should take another day off tomorrow,i guess some of them will need a day of recovery from Blowing on whistles and trumpets today.

jef

iTrader: (13)

its seems mostly jealousy that people dont agree with this action.

its all "private sector dont get x amount why should public?" if the public sectors so fantastic then why do all you not have a job in it - not everyone in local authroities are lazy bstards!
ive seen stupidly wasted council money, but its by managemnt, rarley floor workers.

they signed up to a pension deal, and contribyuted to it - it should be honoured, changing later down the line is not on, fair enough for new employees starting fresh then they could be offered the new rate.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Why do you lot not seem to understand the concept of there no longer being enough money to honour this agreement.? What is it you can't get about that? Did you not listen to George Osborne yesterday?

jef

iTrader: (13)

that argument is given to me all the time "theres no money for x and y" but suddenly there is money available for other complete wastes of public cash.
you cannot set up an agreement for peoples future then just change the rules half way down the line. there is money for it, the local authorities or national don not want to take it from elsewhere - thats the truth.
were still seeing council bosses receiveing ridiculous bonuses/pay, stupendous waste of publics money on numerous ludicrous ideas - in effiecent running ect.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Go and look at our national debt and then come back and tell us there is money for it.

SCD Simon

iTrader: (1)

The coalition government must be doing something right by managing to convince people it's all about pensions.

Mr Milliband hit the nail on the head

Miliband told ITV's Daybreak show that the disruption caused by two million striking public sector workers would be "terrible", but he would not condemn them.

"(The government is) imposing -- and I don't think most people recognise this yet -- a 3 percent tax rise on some of the lowest paid workers in the country, not actually to help them with their pension but to help pay off the deficit," he told the programme.

TinyTim

iTrader: (3)

Naa, i'll just wait til you get yourself banned again, thats speaks volumes over any verbal diatribe you spout

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Back from the picket lines I see, bet that's the longest day's work you've done in ages

jef

iTrader: (13)

but theres money for the olympic games in london, commonwealth games in scotland?

never mind the tram fiasco in edinburgh, the 400million quid scottish parliment building, but theres money for my local councillors to be chauffered around in brand new 60-k cars, and keep and maintain a small fleet of them? the fcking raping of all tax payers in expenses scandals ect ect along with rest of the diabolical wastes

you see theres "no money" and then the "were not giving the poeple we owe money to", -no money"

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

Sorry, but you can, if the people who set up the agreement were a bunch of incompetent idiots (or just blatantly dishonest) who completely miscalculated how much money there really would be. That's exactly what's happened here, and that's why there really isn't the money needed to stick to every last detail of that agreement.

No amount of whining that "it's not fair" is ever going to change that.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Spot on!

Dr.No

Jeez... three years ago, as the recession started to bite I was "asked" to take a 10% salary cut - that was being imposed across the entire company. I had little choice but to accept, but was still made redundant 6 months later and the company held out but was finally sold before going bust earlier this year.

My story, amongst the private sector, isnt uncommon.

I "signed up" to a level of salary that was then reduced - why should the public sector be any different if their "company" is in similarly dire straits? Packages that were financially viable before now simply arent!

The public sector was VERY insulated from the recession that hit the private sector in 2008/9 - and continued (to necessarily expand in many areas) largely unaffected. However - welcome to the recession! The public sector is simply experiencing a mild version of what the private sector has been through - it wasnt our fault either.

Hands up all public sector employees that have taken a 10% salary cut "for the greater good" in the past few years?

Whilst we're at it, I'd probably also say that a huge percentage of private sector workers have had annual "cost of living" or "merit" pay rises of 0%, 0% and 0% over the last 3 years. Conversely the good old public sector unions will have negotiated inflation+ rises for probably every worker every year since Adam was a boy.

Wake up, smell the coffee, enter the real world and suffer the recession that some of us have already 'enjoyed'!

Now get back to work and be bloody grateful.

JTaylor

He went on to say "that's the way to do it" before hitting Judy with a rubber truncheon.

Dr.No

Milliband also mentioned that many of the low paid workers that were striking today "earnt in a week what the Chancellor pays for his annual skiing holiday".

That'll put them on about £100K a year then...

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

here here.
I work on the building and took a massive paycut 3years ago of about 35% of my wage and I don't see there being a rise in the near future.
The prices for jobs we are given are equal to what we were getting paid 14 years ago! My private pensions are worth **** all so I have little sympathy for others who think they are hard done by because they have to pay a little more.

Welcome to what most of the country has been suffering for nearly 4 years.

cuprajake

iTrader: (11)

working in the motor trade i see it from a side of people not spending, we get less people in for quotes, insurance companies are cutting labour rates lower than every before, whilst paint companies and suppliers put prices up.

on a personal level, we bought our house 5yrs ago back then we could pay for the bills quite easily, and still manage to save a good ammount for a rainy day, now 5yrs on we are lucky if we save £100 a month and this is with me and the mrs getting payrises in the past...

i think everybody is really having to cut costs, everybody knows that the council/nhs etc etc has always been a good screw, office workers working flexi-time, going to work at 7:30 to get work done when the switch boards dont start till 9 etc, its been to much of a good thing for them, and now there having to face the resession, which started 3yrs ago for most of us, their throwing their toys out of the pram,

DYK

This is where the public sector are losing support and are doing themselves no favors when you hear some say i won't get a pay rise for 2 years,i'll now have to work until i'm 68.