Leading by example…

Saturday 17th October 2009, 2:59PM BST.

From Ian Hornby.
I WRITE in reply to Kevin Keen’s letter (JEP, 9 October) concerning a pay freeze for States workers. Could he and his fellow high profile business leaders please give me a simple, concise and logical answer to the following question.

Why did States Members (barring a couple) accept a £1,000 pa (£20 per week) pay rise, during these tough economic times, adding £50,000-plus to the States wage bill? States employees would have gratefully accepted a third of this amount with no complaints.

Forgive me if I’m wrong but I thought our States Members were our leaders and therefore should be leading by example, or am I missing the point somewhere?

Could Mr Keen, as one of our top Island businessmen, please try and enlighten me with a simple answer to a simple question?

1
Ramjeet Forsythe

October 20, 2009 at 11:08 pm

Dear Sir,
I had a recent discussion over dinner with a friend who is a State of Jersey employee, concerning the current proposal to freeze all wages for States workers.
I told my friend that I thought this was unfair, as it was effectively imposing a tax on one sector of the workforce rather than spreading the burden to all tax payers.

As we finished our value meals he said he was quite prepared to give up his company card, his private medical insurance, dental plan annual performance bonus, long term incentive plan, share options and expense account lunches in return for a below inflation salary increase of 2% per annum.
Sounds like a fair trade to me . What do you think?

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2
Arnald

October 21, 2009 at 8:58 am

You have a Dental Plan Annual Performance Bonus?

A hedge fund that bets on the number of fillings needed? Dentists promoting sweets? oh my.

But the rest of your point is nonsense.

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3
Ramjeet forsythe

October 21, 2009 at 1:32 pm

Dear Arnald,
Yes, a typing mistake. There should have been a comma between dental plan and annual performance bonus. However, I think that your reply fails to add anything of worth to this debate. If I was you I would go and suck on a sherbet and come back when you have anything worthwhile to say.

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