Spending cuts: Union hits out
Thursday 4th February 2010, 3:00PM GMT.
Union leader Nick Corbel
PLANS to cut States spending by £50 million a year from 2012 have been branded a ‘disgrace’ by union representatives.
They say the ambitious plans, announced by ministers on Monday, will lead to mass job cuts in the public sector and higher taxes.
Local members of the Unite union are said to be ‘absolutely distraught’ at the plans and have vowed to use all their resources – including strike action if necessary – in response.
Unite leader Nick Corbel said that the States had taken a ‘ham-fisted’ approach to dealing with the economic downturn.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
Travel
To, from and around the Island
Airport Arrivals & Departures
Harbours Arrivals & Departures
Bus Information & Timetables
JOIN US ON...
Facebook and Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Got a story? Get in touch
BIRD WATCH 2012
Click here to record your results
The 11th Great Garden Bird Watch took place over the weekend, Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 February. JEP readers were asked to get on board to help monitor bird life in the Island.
This is Jersey
Jersey Evening Post
Useful links
Oh what a surprise! Nick Corbel always is first to protest. Maybe for a change he will come out with proposition how to deal with black hole in the budget.
Tax rise depends on decisions of our representatives. We can avoid it, but States MUST stop unnecessary spending now – not in 2012! God help us if they keep spending as they do now…
Report abuse
Okay Nick Corbel how do we raise £50 Million extra per annum then without raising taxes? Over to you.
Report abuse
The States ‘ham-fisted’ approach is matched only by ‘ham-fisted’ approach of Unite leader Nick Corbe.
A year of discontent?
Report abuse
What Mr. Corbel fails to recognise is that States jobs have long been seen as a sinecure.
It’s high time the real world caught up with States employees, the rest of us have to deliver or look for another job; the same should apply there.
Welcome to the real world.
Report abuse
This Island is doomed and Nick Corbel’s toy throwing won’t do anything to change it, Jersey is just too expensive to run. Mass lay offs in the Civil Service, higher taxes which will be followed by high inflation, negative equity and then finance will price itself out of the market and move. Last one out turn out the lights….
Report abuse
Is this a joke? Are Unite really that detached from reality they used words like “disgrace” and “distraught” for something the Island population has cried out for for years?
And local members of Unite have vowed to use “…all their resources – including industrial action”. Everyone knows striking is the only ‘solution’ they know. These local Unite members have clearly not spent much time in Jersey the last 10 years. Time for them to return and see that spending like it is cannot be sustained.
Report abuse
I’m sure Unite can manage here what they are doing for BA
Report abuse
Is this the “Unite The Union” that is master-minding and orchestrating the industrial unrest among British Airways’ cabin crew?
If it is then perhaps Mr Nick Corbel and his cohorts should take a few lessons in “how to please folks and influence people”.
Report abuse
Nobody wins ,if states workers are laid off means more unemployment,more benefits being paid out,less income tax ,less social security payments,this all mounts up ,yes states should forget ideas of a town park for example ,save their money for more important things health and education!
Report abuse
8 Disgruntled
Although it will be a horrible prospect, but if any public workers are laid off does that mean they have no other vocation to fall upon??
Are they unemployable afterwards? Can’t they be retrained to learn something else or even simply apply for the jobs that are available?
This is the reality in the private sector!
Maybe the management would be a good start for culling and some of the “essentials” would have to either find a private sector or lower paid job otherwise simply return whence they came if they are no longer “essential”.
Just a thought.
Report abuse
We are all doomed I tell you, doomed. Don’t panic Captain Mainwaring, Private Godfrey (a.k.a. Terry Le Sueur) will save us with some band aid and elstoplast. We are doomed, doomed I tell you……
Report abuse
The posts to this story were totally predictable…until you get to number 8. A sensible post amongst a load of drivel.
Don’t you lot get it, there’s a massive downside to sacking half the States staff?? Are you honestly stupid enough to think they all have massive salaries, fat pensions and a free parking space?? Seriously, you’re the ones that need to live in the real world!!
Report abuse
Don’t you lot get it, there’s a massive downside to sacking half the States staff?? Are you honestly stupid enough to think they all have massive salaries, fat pensions and a free parking space?? Seriously, you’re the ones that need to live in the real world!!
What about the manual workers getting two months paid leave after 20 years is this the real world ?
+ pension and overtime scales that date back to the 70′s it is you my friend who needs to wake up
Report abuse
This shows exactly any union’s ‘logic’: Cutting EXPENSES = higher taxes…
God save us from unions…
Report abuse
@TB #11:
I think you’re missing the point. Obviously nobody is assuming that all States employees are on massive salaries, have fat pensions, or free parking.
The point is that Mr. Corbel seems to be of the opinion that his union members should somehow be exempt from the belt tightening that the current economic climate demands. Does he really believe that his union members deserve some special status over and above that of the private sector employees, employees who have been subject to pay cuts and job losses for some time now?
Whatever his thinking, I assure you that it is very much Mr. Corbel who needs to rejoin the real world, along with any union members who share his view.
Nobody’s talking about “sacking half the states” here, we’re talking about cutting back, just like everyone else is having to do.
The stereotype of the States employee in a cushy job is nonsense, as you quite rightly point out. In fact, they really only differ from private sector employees in who they work for.
Please explain why, then, when everyone else is having to cut back, and the States find they need to do the same, States employees should be treated any differently?
Report abuse
I don’t know why he is concerned, the states will never cut expenditure, and the deficit will be met by increasing GST – everyone knows that is what is going to happen.
Report abuse
People think it is a good thing when house prices go up – but are any of us better off because of it? We have to work longer and harder to pay off the larger mortgage, first time buyers can’t get on the ladder and no-one actually has any more free cash. High cost of housing is the main threat to our economy as it drives wage increases and makes us less competitive. How can we control it? Perhaps it is time to reintroduce price control on housing like we had 30 years ago. The States won’t like it as, like many western governments, they have been bankrolled by public debt for the last 10 years. But then, if wages were lower, they might be able to pay the wage bill.
Report abuse
Welcome to the real world of economic change mr Corbel. Jersey is doomed, its running towards bankruptcy because no way will they save £50 Million. They will be lucky to save £5 Million, the spending is out of control and yes there will be lay offs in the Civil Service but striking won’t change anything.
Report abuse
8 and 11 – you really do need to get in the real world.
They may increase unemployment but less income tax and social security??? So the States lose approx. 25% of there salary which they would have got from tax/ social and gain 100% of there salary by not paying it!!! Small unemployment payments in return and in most case they will get another job…..just not with a gold plated pension or flexi time!!!
Report abuse
well, yer gorra av a larf aint yer!!! we’re all having a go at one another over States policy and they just carry on screwing us, which is what they have done for years,they must be having a great time!!!
Report abuse
It is a pity that Mr Corbel’s outdated attitudes and immovable stance is alienating the public and destroying any sympathy that folks would have with those hard working States employees that could be affected. He does a very poor job of representing his members.
Report abuse
Those who can do and those who can’t represent the union.
I wish I had a 35 hour working week and a final salary pension but such things don’t exist in the real world.
Was there not a report published last year that concluded most States Employees were paid more than they would be in the private sector?
Report abuse
There were four parts to the action plan instigated to fill the tax hole created by the need for fiscal strategy to change in response to international challenges – all important:
1) Economic growth – how has Mr Corbel helped businesses cut costs to stimulate the growth that is part of the solution? Ah yes, keep increasing the minimum wage, eh?
2) Twenty Means Twenty – it’s real, it costs successful people a lot of money, no comment from Mr Corbel. Probably thinks Twenty should mean Thirty.
3)Introduction of GST – just one part in four, only thruppence in the pound, everyone pays something (including French tourists) – Mr Corbel joined the ranks of the protesters.
4) Cut States Expenditure. Mr Corbel doesn’t want to raise States’ income through GST, but he doesn’t want to cut public expenditure either.
Mr Corbel – WE CANNOT AFFORD TO GO ON LIKE THIS. We just can’t.
Report abuse
TB #11
Drivel??? So your of the opinion that it’s acceptable to keep people in jobs for the sake of it rather than have an efficient public sector?
I think you’ll find that strategy is what has got the public sector into the problem it’s currently facing. I also think that attitude displays contempt for the private sector.
Report abuse
Mr. Corbel has a short memory or really effective blinkers – or hasnt the inventiveness to do other than quote from the arthur scargill book of economics/rhetoric
so its ok for workers in the private sector to lose their jobs, take a pay cut – or merely a pay freeze if youre lucky, but chaos be unleashed* should states workers comfort be put in jeopardy – at a ruinous cost to us all.
full steam ahead to that iceberg
*thats ‘business as usual’
Report abuse
15.Mike
Go back and check some of the previous posts, not just on this topic. Sorry, but there are frequent references to fat civil servant pay cheques/pensions and other perks. Crap/uninformed comments such as they’ve got an easy life, sit around pushing pens and drinking tea all day. Seriously I’ve read all them all.
And just to clarify my point I’m not saying the States should be exempt from cutbacks. Quite the opposite in fact. A financial deficit clearly can’t be made just from service cuts and higher taxation. But crass comments such as ‘sack half of them’ are ridiculous and do nothing to inform the debate.
Report abuse
19.REG
As I said, you really don’t get it. If people are unemployed then they will have less disposable income to spend on essentials and ‘luxury’ items, which would not be good for local businesses.
24. Joker
Read my post again – I said no such thing. My point was about people making stupid comments like sack half the states (even saw one poster suggest replacing them with immigrant Polish workers once).
Report abuse
27 TB
Re your comment:”As I said, you really don’t get it. If people are unemployed then they will have less disposable income to spend on essentials and ‘luxury’ items, which would not be good for local businesses.”
The EMPLOYED don’t even have enough disposable income to support local businesses!
That is perhaps why more and more do their shopping online and St Helier is turning into a ghost town for retailers!
Maybe if we received the generous benefits handed out to the (mostly) workshy then we would be better off unemployed!
Report abuse
Strike action ?. Bring it on, the sooner the better. The union will then be able to see that, by inconveniencing the very people who pay your wages, how the majority of the population of this island actually feel about your claims. This in turn should then enable the States to fulfil their mandate to act in the interests of the majority of the population, by not only denying your claims for more and more all the time, but by actually beginning to cut your pay and conditions. I’m afraid your threats to back us into a corner will actually increase the speed of your demise.
Best of luck with that.
Report abuse
If workers want better wages, benefits and working conditions then they must be unionized, so we really shouldn’t thrash the unions.
No-one would dare ask ‘union-protected’ public-sector employees to work more hours for less pay…something which has happened quite often recently in the private sector.
And who is really gaining from this situation? The private-sector worker? I don’t think so.
This ‘take-from-the-worker’ attitude also damages the economy…giving workers less only means they can’t buy the goods and services they need. Instead, good pay results in more spending, and more spending results in more jobs…it’s a virtuous circle.
Therefore, the Unions are probably the only hope we have of pulling out of the recession, without them, workers do not have the bargaining leverage they need to get higher pay (at least high enough to get the economy moving). Unfortunately, there are very few unionized workers in the private-sector and, most companies prefer it that way, as non-unionized workers have absolutely no bargaining power and are easier to handle…good for profits!
Report abuse
Anyone watching what is happening in Greece? The government has been spending 13% more than the economy generates and is now asking public sector workers to consider pay reductions/lay offs/pension reductions etc and delaying the pensionable age by up to 5 years. And it’s not just the public “servants” being asked to tighten their belt…taxes are in line for increases across the board (tho’ they reckon about 40% of taxable income is “avoided” by their population) The public sector reckon that they won’t stand for any of it and, as a result, the entire country will go bankrupt due to the a small proportion of the workforce.
So if you want to see what Jersey is in for, in about 3 years time, just look over to Greece…the problems have been ignored for so long by their government that now the only remedy is going to be severe and probably take a couple of generations to recover from. You can’t have gold plated public services if you only have brass in your pocket! Better to rein in spending, keep tax as low as possible to try and maintain your economy and rebuild your public services when you can afford them.
Report abuse
Born Warrior #30
IMO you are completely wrong.
Only an employer who wants bankruptsy underpays his workers.
Unions negotiate a rate of pay for the job.
This means an employer has to pay his employees an agreed amount no matter how good the employee is at the job, so one ends up with those who are workshy getting the same wages as the keen employee. It does not take long for the keen employee to take stock and say why should I work my B******* off and get paid the same for it. All unionised workers then descend to a common lowest level.
In non unionised employment a good worker negotiates his own wages, acording to his ability, the better employee getting the better wage, this in turn encourages the workshy to try harder as this failure to deliver stands out among his co workers and is a target for the first goodby come the recesion.
This is why non union workers are usually better paid than unionised ones.
This is from my own experience of working in heavy industry as a union and non union employee .
God bless Margaret Thatcher for giving me that chance.
Report abuse
PJG 32.
You are right when you say that unions negotiate a rate of pay for a job and that an employer has to pay his employees the agreed amount. However, it is the employer who chooses the employee and not the unions.
So blame Public-sector management for high costs, poor human-resource planning, overstaffing, shirkers, low technical capacity, lack of organisation, etc., but please don’t blame the unions.
The task of the unions is to protect the workers’ rights…not to select and train them.
And, that’s exactly what they have done/are doing. The unionized public-sector worker has a safe job, good conditions, decent salary, wage-related pension, etc.
What has the non-unionized, unqualified private-sector worker got?
I’ll tell you, £6 something per hour and tout-that-bail’ conditions…so who is better off the unionized or non-unionized worker?
If the unions weaken, workers’ wages and living standards will stagnate or even decline, the working day will get longer and job security will evaporate.
Unions pressure the economic elite to increase the share of the wealth going to workers…and where there is no union there is no wealth for the worker.
Report abuse
whoops a typo: bale
Report abuse