Public sector workers to sacrifice their pensions

[SueEllen]

They all have a cushy number. Apart from my Dad who is dead but my Mother is receiving half of his pension on top of her full pension.

So they don't deal with the public on a day to day basis.

To be honest this has been on the cards for a while as I remember talking to some female doctors about it 10 years ago. They worked out in their profession women who take time out to have children would end up being the winners with this career average there as men who don't tend to would lose out.

And yes there are some in the public sector i.e. policy writing bods, accounting bods, HR bods, admin bods who don't deal with the public on a day-to-day basis do have a crushy number. There as others don't. Unfortunately the retirement age can't distinguish between the two.

[Churchill]

So they don't deal with the public on a day to day basis.

To be honest this has been on the cards for a while as I remember talking to some female doctors about it 10 years ago. They worked out in their profession women who take time out to have children would end up being the winners with this career average there as men who don't tend to would lose out.

And yes there are some in the public sector i.e. policy writing bods, accounting bods, HR bods, admin bods who don't deal with the public on a day-to-day basis do have a crushy number. There as others don't. Unfortunately the retirement age can't distinguish between the two.

Read what I posted. My brother and his wife haven't retired. They still work in a hospital and not in any of the roles you mention.

Anyway, you believe what you want to. If the government wanted to really hurt public sector workers in the UK they'd follow the Irish measures.

[Sysman]

Public sector workers pension reform

Dave Prentis, the general secretary of the biggest public sector union, Unison, said: "On top of a pay freeze, and the threat of redundancy, they now face a pensions raid. This brings the threat of industrial action closer."

Well Dave, the private sector have had to face pay drops, mass scale redundancies and pensions raids over the last three decades.

That public sector workers now face these discomforts, well:

IT'S ONLY FAIR!

[SueEllen]

Read what I posted. My brother and his wife haven't retired. They still work in a hospital and not in any of the roles you mention.

Don't know where you are in the UK but where I am lots of roles are outsourced. So the councils, hospitals etc ensure they don't pay the relevant public sector pensions to the "little people". Even if they aren't they like hiring people on short term contracts.

[TimberWolf]

It's not all bad news for public sector workers:

Mervyn King has been given a £1.4 million pension top-up after confirming a second five-year term as governor of the Bank of England in 2008, in order to have retirement earlier than usual, it has been revealed.

This means that Mr King's pension pot rises from £3.95 million to £5.36 million. King will receive a pension of two-thirds his final salary when he leaves his job in 2013 and will translate to nearly £200,000 a year, Sharecast revealed.
Mervyn King to receive early pension - UK and Worldwide - Thomsons Online Benefits

[d000hg]

Spare me the bleeding heart liberalism. Yes I've seen EMI care homes. I've seen EMI people shuffled round hospitals, not just wards at weekends to find beds for them because there's no-one able/willing to look after them.

My Father worked in the public sector, my Mother worked in the public sector, my Brother and his wife work in the public sector.

They all have a cushy number. Apart from my Dad who is dead but my Mother is receiving half of his pension on top of her full pension.

Next question.

For an average public sector job, the pension is the only good bit because the pay sure ain't.

[xoggoth]

For an average public sector job, the pension is the only good bit because the pay sure ain't

It a job attracts the necessary number of suitable staff then the total package (including factors like security as well as pay) is adequate by definition. If they have difficulty finding staff for any role then they will resumably have to pay better. I suspect it mostly won't be necessary.

There is a problem with divorcing public sector pay from market forces and having a union imposed common pay structure in that there is a shortage in specific geographical areas and specialities, teachers in the poorer areas with large numbers of problematic children for example.

[centurian]

For an average public sector job, the pension is the only good bit because the pay sure ain't.

Wind back 15 years and that was the case.

Nowadays public sector rates are pretty decent - for the job being done. It struggles in some areas - but the average public sector worker (whoever that is) would stuggle to earn much more in the private sector - doing a job with equivalent skills and experience requirements.

[Board Game Geek]

Don't know where you are in the UK but where I am lots of roles are outsourced. So the councils, hospitals etc ensure they don't pay the relevant public sector pensions to the "little people". Even if they aren't they like hiring people on short term contracts.

Spot on from my experience where I worked. Our department of IT bods started off with 25 people in 2006, and by 2010 was down to about 12.

Of those 12, 1 was a permie for the local government organisation we worked for.

The other 11 were contractors, on rolling 3 monthly contracts. I started on the same daily rate in 2005 (I joined the year before elsewhere and was moved in to the team), and when I left in 2010, my rate was still the same rate, although my role had changed and I did additional work.

Cushy it certainly wasn't. Other departments were also full of contractors too.

I reckon there were probably only about 40 or so people out of 400 who were permies.

[Doggy Styles]

Wind back 15 years and that was the case.

Nowadays public sector rates are pretty decent - for the job being done. It struggles in some areas - but the average public sector worker (whoever that is) would stuggle to earn much more in the private sector - doing a job with equivalent skills and experience requirements.

Yes, the pay is now better than equivalent private sector jobs.

And in case some of you have forgotten, in the private sector they fund their own pensions PLUS the pensions of those in the public sector.

Some sort of reform is well overdue.