‘Hands off the public sector’
Monday 11th January 2010, 3:00PM GMT.
Union leader Nick Corbel
A ‘HANDS-OFF’ warning has been issued by a union leader in response to the Jersey Chamber of Commerce president saying that the public sector could be run more efficiently.
Nick Corbel of the Unite Union has reacted angrily to comments made by Ray Shead that it was time the States stopped directly providing certain services.
Mr Corbel said that the privatisation of services provided by the States would lead to the exploitation of workers.
‘There are many deplorable practices used by employers in the UK in running services that used to be the preserve of the public sector that we do not want to see in Jersey,’ he said.
In the latest edition of the Jersey Chamber of commerce newsletter, Mr Shead said that some services – such as leisure centres and the running of the Island’s ports – could be delivered more efficiently through the private sector.
He said that with tight budgets, work needed to be done to assess where taxpayers’ money could be saved.
But Mr Corbel argued that the public sector was not there to make profit and was already operating efficiently. ‘It is there to provide a service to the community. It is not about profit,’ he said.
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That’s the way to go comrade Nick. More power to the unions. Welcome to the 1800’s!
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Unite – ah yes, the ones who wantd to bring BA to its knees. Unite – the ones who completely cocked the pension negotiations with Barclays. Unite – the union wih its head stuck in the 1970s. Nick, you and your ilk are outmoded and not needed or wanted. Go away.
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Bit of a sweeping statement! Does that mean that all private sector workers are exploited?
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“ex – unite”
Your nom de plume takes me right back to those days of staring fixedly at that portrait in the Howard Davis Hall.
Ex unitate vires (Out of unity is strength).
Put the emphasis where it suits your stance!
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Having worked in H.M.Forces, the Police and now a local authority in the U.K., my view is that the public sector, in particular the local authority is run inefficiently.
Managers have little idea how to administer a budget effciciently and are told that if they don’t spend all that they are allocated, they will be allocated less in the next financial year.
Why they don’t they spend money on what they need instead of making every effort to use all the money paid into their budget?
Also when it comes to personnnel management and leadership, local authorities – and I imagine it is just as relevant in the States Departments – would learn a lot from the hierachy in H.M. Forces – especially when it comes to administration, organisation and discipline.
If States Departments were private businesses, instead of being financed by the public, they would have been declared en désastre a long time ago due to the constant mismanagement.
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The public sector is paid for by the private sector, and, unless someone stands up to the likes of Mr Corbel, the Island will continue on a course of inevitable, upward, tax increases. It should be hands on and now!
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Jersey’s Public Sector is plagued with inefficiencies, gross mismanagement and a lazy work ethic that has been imported from the Socialist labour slag heaps of the UK. Britain has become a nation of whiners and moaners who cant get out of bed in the morning without a Government grant or some form of compensation – any excuse not to work!
For an organisation and or someone who has never produced or created a penny’s worth of wealth for the Island to tell the people of this Island how to manage, spend or conserve their precious resources is simply garbage for the incinerator!
Of course the Island can be run more efficiently, with less waste – and for far less. It’s not about cutting essential jobs at the bottom. It’s about cutting the unproductive over staffing and top heavy over-paid management. This is where the Union should be directing its supportive energies – though I doubt it has any…
At least 2000 thousand useless and unnecessary over staffed positions should be cut from the Public Sector. Union activity should be limited and not be allowed to interfere or interrupt the operation of the Island’s vital services – period!
Jersey needs to take a bold stand against such collective socialist bullying and get back to cutting public expenditures, illuminating all the costly bureaucratic red tape and start encouraging small business.
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All the unions are good for is to protect the lazy and work shy idiots amongst us.
Most of the workers have nothing to worry about.
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Wake up Mr Corbel. Jersey is well short of efficient.
By all means protect your members rights, that is your job, but do no believe that the future is moribund.
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The wage cost for the public sector on 45 square miles of lovely island.
£ 70 million pension contributions.
£ 310 million wages.
£ 31 million social security contributions.
So the total ( wage only ) bill for the public sector on Jersey is Approx. £411,000,000 (£411 million) but of course this is not the truth, as contract staff and consultants are not counted nor expences etc etc.
The way the treasury minister tries to save money in the economic downturn, stop hospital transport for the old and ill, and close down community centres, tax the population on fuel and small pleasures.
We do things differently on the planet I live on.
Davey.
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Mr Corbell, with respect, I have taken the liberty to re-work your quote
“There are many deplorable practices used by public sector workers in Jersey, in failing to provide services efficiently and in a timely manner, let alone in a cost effective manner, and which would benefit all if they were transferred from being the preserve of the public sector”
I am sure that we can both agree that it depends whose interests that we are looking at. Your Union members, and in turn yourself, or the interests of the people of Jersey.
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Is Nick Corbel saying that the public sector should be run less efficiently, well, you known, like it is already? If I was running the Island I would sack the lot of them and get Eastern Europeans in on minimum wage then I could give all the tax paying public of Jersey a break.
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R B Bougourd
what on earth are you on about?
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Don’t worry, Ex -unite. (R B Bougourd
what on earth are you on about?)
All down to which schools you went to and if you did Latin!
Perhaps someone could let me know if the portrait of KG5 is still hanging in the Howard Davis Hall or has it been replaced with something more appropriate to this day and age?
Come to think of it, “Ex unitate vires (Out of unity is strength)” should be the motto of the Jersey Oligarchy – more so as they undoubtedly would have had it imprinted in their noddles whilst sitting in front of that portrait.
Blue Knight #5. I hope you have joined the appropriate union for your local authority job in the UK.
I got some very good advice from my union when I faced a reduction of salary and hours which would have seriously affected my retirement. By way of thanks I continue to support them with my time.
Perhaps, in time, Jersey’s disproportionate multitude of union bashers will come to understand the need for unity and representation when they find themselves on the rough end of an employment deal.
Finally, if I may quote from the article above:
“..in the latest edition of the Jersey Chamber of commerce newsletter, Mr Shead said that some services – such as leisure centres and the running of the Island’s ports – could be delivered more efficiently through the private sector.”
Believe me, in respect of leisure centres, the local authority ones I have used are more expensive and poorly staffed (qualitywise, not quantitywise) since privatisation/partnership.
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R B Bougourd # 14. I am sorry but unions nowadays are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Whilst I was a memeber of T&G, now Unite, I withdrew my membership, after they let me down following my use of the whislteblower procedure, relating to a manager had committed fraud on a regular basis. (There was ample documentary evidence and corroboration for my allegation, but as management investigated their own misdemeanours, it a whitewash).
I stick by my earlier comments; much of the public sector is largely inept at providing a good public service. Managers have little idea how to manage budgets and leadership is almost non existent. The term ‘Best Value’, so beloved by those who employ ‘management speak’, is a complete misnomer.
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R B Bougourd – Me? Chartehouse. Condescending as well as arrogant? Must have been a good school
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Ex -unite. I think it is my turn to ask:
“What on earth are you on about?”
Perhaps I should have anticipated this impasse when I read your original post #2.
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R B Bougourd #14
I take it the advice was not from Arthur Scargill.
One drip does not a rainstorm make.
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R B Bougourd # 14. Addendum – ‘Ex unitate vires’ or ‘Urinus Extracticus’ Yes there is strength in unity, but many so called union leaders today are unable to unite their members.
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“my view is that the public sector, in particular the local authority is run inefficiently.
Managers have little idea how to administer a budget effciciently….”
I totally agree. But my experience is that this is the case in the private sector also and no, these people do not always get found out and made redundant.
So maybe there is an issue that needs to be addressed in the whole of society, namely management skills. Few people that manage are actually good at it, many abuse the position and it is rare that you get a manager who doesn’t see his staff as people to take the blame for his/her own failings.
There is also the issue that the law continually makes it harder and harder to get rid of bad employees (unless you are a very large company).
None of these things are helping.
I get very mixed messages from the States, I don’t doubt that in the coming years Jersey will be forced to introduce maternity pay, this will make things more inefficient, and will mean that many women of a certain age intentionally target the public sector for employment. So do the States actually want to be more efficient or are they just paying lip service but without the guts to make the vote-losing decisions?
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It is common knowledge that a job in the States is a job for life. Unfortunately for many it has become an excuse for an easy ride. Gone are the ‘good old days’ when the Island was cash rich and jobs could be strung out over several days.
I have friends who are relatively new at TTS and they cannot believe the attitude the older established ‘workers’ endorse. The rule seems to be get your day in, ie do the bare minimum and then take it easy. I also cannot believe that if the work is taking place away from base, they travel back for tea breaks! How much time is wasted there?!
The whole system has to be overhauled. They are public servants and should serve the public to the best of their ability. The Waterworks grasped the nettle and outsourced some of its operation. The third party contractor re-employed most of the workers, but streamlined the operation down to a more practical level.
Why do you need five people standing round a hole with one person digging?
It is very commendable that Nick Corbel is doing his best to protect his members, indeed the Unions have played an immense role in shaping the modern world and our perception of fairness. However the times have changed and the Unions will have to adapt and accept that the playing field is no longer a level one, and sadly will have to endorse change or vanish forever.
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“Why do you need five people standing round a hole with one person digging?”
Why not ask them directly instead of trying to get a cheap laugh from a worn out anecdote?.
If they are public servants and you are evidently their master, they are duty bound to doff their caps, stand to attention and provide the answer which you want to hear.
There might even be a perfectly good reason why.
Always assuming that the number wasn’t exaggerated to make a good apocryphal story.
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Matt 12.
Re your comment: …”If I was running the Island I would sack the lot of them and get Eastern Europeans in on minimum wage”…
That’s why workers need Unions!
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#21 Walk past the hospital and you’ll often see more than 1 doctor standing around looking at an X-ray… guess we’d better get rid of some of those doctors too!
As someone else said, ‘ask’. If it’s not your line of work you simply won’t know what they are actually doing. It’s easy to assume they’re wasting time but it’s better for your sanity to assume otherwise and ask if you are unsure.
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I would like to start by saying that if public services are run so badly what are the members of the Royal square gang doing about it? It is not the place of the chamber of commerce to comment on such things as privatisation, as they have a conflict of inertest. All the chamber of commerce has done for the Island of jersey is turn its self into a self interested group of money makers. TAKE A GOOD LOOK at who the chamber members actually are out scourers makers of redundancies. In fact they are the little faceless men and women who make the working man’s life a misery. Finally to all you union bashers I hope you are prepared to pay the unemployed works the social security contributions and income support.
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Jean the Bean # 25. I am a great believer in unions, but unfortunately the union leaders have lost their way and there seems to be little unity.
You are right, it shouldn’t be for the Chamber of Commerce to ask for privatisation of certain services. The States need to sort out the inefficiencies and inequalities in the public sector, with poor work practices and overpaid bosses who lack leadership skills.
The ethos of providing a public service has all but disappeared, as the public sector has lost it’s way due to weak leadership in some quarters.
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