2

Magnolia Man

I fervently support the right given to trade unions to protect and to represent their members in negotiations with employers.

A dictionary definition of ‘negotiation’ is “a discussion set up or intended to produce a settlement or agreement”.

If Mr Corbel and his colleagues believe in their “negotiations” with the States over pay increases for States employees, the threat of “industrial action ballots” should be their very last tool.

In any case, as has been written here so many times already a recession is not the time for demanding more money. People in the private sector will not get salary raises because their employers cannot afford them.

Nick Corbel must realise that the same applies to the public sector.

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4

J Lamborrari

@ Disheartened # 3
“…please remember that during the “good times” u lot were getting annual pay rises and bonus packages that on the whole were above that which the public sector workers were receiving…”
I’ve worked in the private sector, and rarely if ever got a pay rise greater than the Public sector, my hours have always been longer, my job never secure and my salary far lower than so many of the very basic entry level post I see advertised for the Public sector. And to rub salt in the wound everytime I have to deal with a States dept. the people I deal with a terrible at their jobs, on the whole.

I say the States employement board should sit down with the Unions, give the Union workers a pay deal that matches similar roles in the Private sector, offer to match the deal over the next 5years… but then point out that during that period the departments will be run in a manner akin to private businesses, where if you don’t perform you’re out. If you’re no longer needed, you’re out. IF somebody offers to do your job more effectivly than you, you’re out.

You know what the Unions would say to that? they’d threaten to strike!

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6

Keith

J Lamborrari – good post and unlike some who have taken the opportunity to slate private sector workers, what you say is simply the truth.

There’s a perception that all finance sector workers earn a fortune and receive massive bonuses. I worked for a bank for a good many years and started on £17,000 a year, after a couple of promotions I left 7 years later on £22,000. I always had good appraisals of above average performance and as such got pay rises of around 3%. Most of my colleagues who weren’t appraised so well had between 0.5 and 1% pay increases, this at a time when the private sector were guaranteed cost of living pay rises 3% – 5%.

We got performance related bonuses, for me that meant 10% = £1700 taxable and scoial removed of course.For others who performed less well this could be a few hundred pounds or nothing if rated below average, no pay rises for below average appraisals either.

For those who had worked for the bank for a long time and hit the top of their pay grade, they could not receive a pay rise, only the incremental increase in their pay grade limit.
Are states workers aware of how it is in the real world? we couldn’t strike and if we complained we’d better start looking for a job as we’d be managed out.

I’m not knocking states workers, I think some of them do a really good job, I just don’t think they understand how it is in the public sector, oh and we weren’t responsible for the current economic crises either, it was a select few at the top, we had no say in it, although I did have to listen to them whinge about the value of their shares when the brown stuff hit the fan – shares who can afford shares?

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8

PJG

J Lamborrari
I work in the private sector. The company I work for has a 100% union member hourly paid work force.
We have better hourly rates than States employees in similar jobs.
Our company still maintain a contributory final salary pension.
Our company pay 4 weeks full pay then 4 weeks half pay during sickness.
We are entitled to 25 days paid holiday per year
All special clothing, Boiler suits, boots , etc are supplied by the company.
I have worked for the company for 25 years and have only known 3 people sacked, all for gross misconduct.
During the 25 years I have been there, there has never been a strike.
Pay has risen on the whole close to inflation. Not the massive pay hikes enjoyed by the finance industry a few years back where the blackmail threat of leaving usually bought another 10%.
The majority of job skills we use are freely available in the market place and are similar to States blue collar jobs.
we have a disciplinary procedure very akin to the States.
So you need stop talking private Vs public sector.
Talk good Vs bad “employers”.
If you work for a bad employer, change your job and stop being envious of those have good employers.
There are bad apples in every business.
“every time I have to deal with a States dept. the people I deal with are terrible at their jobs.
Perhaps its your attitude when dealing with these people, they may be Public sector workers but they are still human beings. I have had dealings with bank staff who in reality should not be in the jobs they are doing. I find being polite and understanding usually helps.”

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10

anon

When is it going to be made clear that, although the pay freeze is an issue, the reason this potential industrial action is likely is due to the states removing peoples rights to negotiate and apparently not being truthful about where the money originally set aside for the pay increase was going.

Had the negotiations gone ahead as they should have and reasonable alternative uses for the money outlined, we may well have seen the workers accept the pay freeze for the good of the island on a whole. Instead we face thousands of workers ‘working to rule’. That doesn’t seem like much but how many of us realise just how much overtime and additional tasks are undertaken by a lot of these workers that goes largely un-noticed or appreciated?

Its about time we all looked at the jobs these people do and ask ourselves ‘could i do that job?’ before we say they don’t even deserve the right to argue their own side!

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