2

Dave

70k a year, index linked pension at 60 (or 50 in some cases), at least cost of living increases on salary and little threat of redundancy. Not a bad package – much better than most of the taxpayers who are paying for it.

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4

Alan

Depending on their Job and the responsibilty etc, this not a huge wage – i.e. look at the Finance Industry.

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6

joker

This article is misleading, it suggests that the £70k cost to the tax payer is what the employee takes home as basic salary. It isn’t. £70k will include all expenses such as pension and social security costs. It will also include overtime and shift work. In other words it’s far from basic salary.

truthseeker – I assume you refer to the Bailiff etc on £250k? You have no clue how much someone of the Bailiff’s position could earn in the private sector… he would most likely be a partner earning close if not more than £1 million every year. So actually you could say his position is underpaid by 3/4 of a million.

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8

truthseeker

Joker,you assume Totally incorrectly…….Look at the top Civil servants on that much, new waterfront boss etc,who incidentally when questioned as to his value boldly suggested that he could earn five times that much somewhere else,so why wouldn’t he….? I’m sick of these parasites telling us how grateful we should be for their indulgence…it just goes to show the contempt we are held in ,and I suppose it is not unreasonable for them to assume such as we are mugs to put up with it ,such a subservient little society we have become, seeming to completely have forgotten what Government is for….it’s for the PEOPLE, yes me and you ,what we have here is no more than a rich boys cartel,where everything is geared to help them make even more money,no matter how despoilt the environment becomes,or who gets hurt, the average private sector person is now in a financial hamster wheel,struggling to pay ridiculously greed driven rents and has very little disposable income left,just work,work and more work ,pay bills and be bled by this rapacious set up, it makes me puke.

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10

Pip Clement

“Would you rather the £1m per year salary now and a private pension or £250k a year now with an indexed linked pension?”

That really depends on what I think inflation will do after I retire and how long I think I am going to live.
If inflation rips away like it did in the 1970′s then the index linked pension is much better value as it is very unlikely that any private pension will keep pace with inflation.
The 1970′s rendered thousands of people’s savings and pensions almost valueless but those on index linked pensions did a lot better than average.
The Bailiff may not be the wealthiest lawyer in the island but he will retire on several times the average wage, protected against inflation and guaranteed for life.
Find a private pension scheme that will guarantee that if you can!

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12

Adrian

It is better to be employed in the public sector for workers as they get better treatment. If you want to be able to afford to retire at 60 then I would recommend the public sector. Where will you get an indexed linked pension in the private sector?

Without an index linked pension you can probably forget about retiring, as a private pension will not be good enough, especially with the stock market acting as it is at present.

If you’re into sort term gain then choose the private sector but long term there’s no competition.

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14

Jersey Bull

The public sector employees (some 7500 on an honest day’s count) are paid to maintain the Island’s general infrastructure, which is there to primarily support the businesses that actually CREATE and bring WEALTH INTO the Island, from which the greater amount of TAXES are paid to provide for this army of people and the public services they are expected to maintain.

Currently we have some 7500 people putting nearly half of our entire £650+ million budget into their pockets – No Civil Servant, Bailiff, AG, SG or Chief Officer of any department on this Island should be making more or anything near that of the UK Prime Minister, US President, Mayor of Los Angeles or the NY Police Commissioner, but alas, what we have for a community as small as ours is nothing less than a carefully contrived in-house arrangement that allows for the systematic misuse (theft) of our public wealth. A system that provides very little managerial bang for our over taxed buck!

If, as some would claim, they can make so much more out in the Private Sector, then let them go there and try.

Today, out of an able work force of just over 50 thousand, there are, if we are lucky, probably no more than between 10 to 12 thousand people who are actually creating the wealth that has so liberally supported the over-paid end of the public trough.

Our public sector has too many managerial chiefs and no grunts. Proper health care starts at the bed-side and if that is what you want, then you pay the nurse. Rather than wasting our precious resources and materials on an unnecessary army of civil servant managers employed to regulate and tell the doctors how to treat their patients!

The entire Public Sector must be drastically pared down, starting with the pay scales at top end of the public trough – especially those who control and recklessly spend the islands wealth that neither they nor their departments could ever even dream of creating.

To put it all in proportion, a recent advertisement for local private sector job read as follows: “Wanted a Trust Attorney with experience. Able to speak Russian – Starting £80K per annum!”
Now who would want to take their noses out of the public trough for that when it is easier to cut the pay and benefits of all the grunts doing the actual shoveling down at the low end?

Times have changed and now everyone in the Public Sector is going to have to learn that a growing number of people in this Island want them to work harder for longer and for much less – so either board and compete on the private Sector Boat or get used to it.

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16

Adrian

PJG as you well know most private companies ain’t interested in indexed linked pensions prefering to fob their employees off with inferior types. Anyone who isn’t in a final salary pension has in my honest opnion little hope of having an enjoyable and comfortable retirement.

I expect all final salary pensions to be got rid of before too long, as the state doesn’t want people having 30-40 years off from the tread mill that is work. Better to take it away and force people to work till they drop.

It is easy to achieve this by the rule by division ethos. Create anger in those not getting a good deal so you can take away what the others have on the grounds that it isn’t right etc.

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18

sanity

This report puts States members Salaries into perspective. The longer Jersey tries to save a few thousand getting a Government [our top level of management] on the cheap we will continue to add millions to the civil service bill. Very few people of any calibre are now coming forward at election time and as a result we are faced with a limited choice of no hopers and activists. This is hardly a solid management platform for a bright and vibrant economy. The blogs that appear confirm this view – they all seem to agree that our Government is not performing but none are putting their names forward for political office. Unless this changes and we can attract young dynamic people from their highly paid careers into politics, Jersey will continue to flounder and we have no safety net. It is not as the JDA and more extreme States menbers would have us believe, the rich that are suffering. The rich can and will adapt, retire or move on. They will not fill the void between spending and tax. It will be the poor, low paid, vulnerable and pensioners who will have to suffer.

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20

Pip Clement

I have never been totally convinced that money is the be all and end all of life for most people going in to politics and quite a few careers.
Simply put I have known quite a few MP’s, teachers, social workers and clergy, amongst others, who could knock most finance professionals I have ever met into a cocked hat when it comes to commitment and ability to do the job.
Why do they continue to do it and not run off to the finance industry and oodles more money?
This may sound strange to a lot of people in the island but they actually want to improve society and leave a lasting contribution!
I have followed the States for the best part of thirty years and the reasons a lot of people won’t go into it are simple.
It is conservative with a small c and stultifying beyond belief.
The same people ramble on about the same issues over and over again.
For example, how many debates have we had on;

a) The incinerator project

b) The casino

c) Reforming the States

God alone knows where the real power in the island lies but it is not in the States’ chamber or in the hands of the CoM.
States’ members are Aunt Sallies for islanders with a beef about noisy neighbours, dog poo on their favourite walk, overfilled or uncollected bins and a hundred and one other annoyances of island life.
It does not matter if you offer £40K or a £100K, the number of people who want the job is going to be limited!

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