Little sympathy for long-haul teachers
Tuesday 27th April 2010, 2:59PM BST.
From John Dix.
NOW we have the spectre of our teachers and other public sector employees taking industrial action (which should be relabelled inaction) in defence of our public services rather than increases in their own take home pay. How public spirited they are, threatening not to do the work for which they are paid as a means of protecting us all.
Do they have a mandate for this? They certainly haven’t canvassed my support. I might have been a little more sympathetic to their straitened circumstances if so many of them hadn’t been stranded all over the world by the recent airline crisis.
If you are living on the breadline as the teachers’ unions claim, long haul foreign holidays shouldn’t really be classed as essential household expenditure. How many teachers missed the start of term due to being stranded on holiday? I think we should be told.
Also it is now high time to put paid to the myth put about by our local unions that cutting the numbers of public sector employees will lead to a catastrophic collapse of income tax receipts.
Even under 20 means 20, if a States employee earns £20k per annum, the most they will pay in income tax is £4k; if that employee ceases to be employed, the net saving to the States is £16k (£20k less £4k income tax receipts) which is a positive result.
At last the local unions, with a good deal of prompting from their masters in the UK, who have no connection with Jersey, together with the free spending tendency among our elected representatives in the States, have come out.
They are not interested in providing good value for money or efficiency in the delivery of services. No, they are now the champions of redistribution of wealth, taking from the rich to give to other people because they deserve it.
Where does this sense of entitlement come from? Are we not all responsible for ourselves and our dependents, with an additional responsibility to care for those in our society who are unable rather than unwilling to take care of themselves?
We live in a free market democracy where there will inevitably be a spread of talents and financial rewards. We all have the ability to improve our personal lot, but there is no right to be paid what we want rather than what our employers or society think our efforts are worth. If you feel you are underpaid by all means take your labour to another employer if they will pay you more.
I look forward to listening to the howls of outrage from our hard working sector employees and their union masters once they have struggled back to the Island through the clouds of volcanic ash.
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so mr dix, i see that jealousy, boredom, hatred of public sector workers, not quite sure what it is to be honest, sir, is alive and well in you.
Why don’t you address the teachers/firefighters/manual workers union directly, or speak to the actual workers, find out exactly what is going on rather than read the headlines and putting your own spin on articles that have been “edited” already.
jersey is a small place and i’m sure you know a teacher/firefighter etc. i say “know” as i am sure none of these you can call your friends after the drivvle I have read from you.
teachers spend a large amount of their own valuable “free time” marking, planning, taking extra curricular activities. do you really think that purely for a tiny pay rise they would spend their weekend marching through town if it didn’t matter?
once again sir you have shown little sympathy to their plight, and wholehearted support of the ineptitude of our glorious government.
the great public sector moral has been whittled away in the last 10 years salary cuts, yes sir, cuts, as a below inflation pay rise is a cut, job losses, budget cuts, so now the workers have said enough is enough and are refusing to do the stuff THEY DO FOR FREE……. that’s “FREE”, without pay, goodwill, at no cost to the tax payer… (which all the workers are anyway).
having read and been disgusted by your letters in the past I sincerely hope that you are never in need of these services, but if you are you will be astonished by the hard work and professionalism that they exude in all that they do… for a reasonable wage yes, but not spectacular by any stretch..
so mr dix, say hi to mr le sueuer for me, i believe you two must surely be bedfellows, how about asking him to justify wages of his government, as in any other job, surely they would be out of a job for gross misconduct, or for that matter, that fine fellow at WEB who earns 1/4mill for what exactly. these are the people who need criticism, not the ones trying to bring some good to our crumbling isle
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Not a big fan of teachers – poor experience when I was in school and then poor experience (IMO)given to my children has blighted my view. However, even one as bitter as myself can see that you don’t have to be a millionaire to take your holiday off our island.
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Jersey Hoff – I agree with letter writer Mr. Dix. The moaning marchers claim to have the public at heart only in sofar as it lines their own pockets.
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I will say having worked for the public sector myself over here, and working for the public sector in the UK, it opened my eyes, yes Jersey is a expensive place to live, but so is England.
Now what the public sector over here need to understand is that you are in a job and to be honest be glad that you are, as if the goverment back down and give in to the demands then to cover the cost they would have to look for redundancies, which I am sure nobody wants.
Now what I don’t agree with is the likes of Le Sueuer and Co giving themselves a £1000 pay rise which I know some states members said they didn’t want, I think most are well over paid for what they do, but that’s another debate.
But with 90% of businesses at the moment making everyone do the work of 2 people, and not getting any more money for it,will make the public question why should they get a pay rise when the rest are just getting on with it.
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I am not sure how many teachers were stranded, but if we are going to be told that figure, then lets break it down to all types of employment.
A friend of mine who works in a law office told me that several of his colleagues were stuck in far off foreign places and enjoyed a jolly good extension to their holiday on expenses.
And the teachers I know that were away could only afford to go on holiday because they have partners who earn decent wages and enjoy generous bonuses from working in banks!
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We’ll have none of that around here we are a rich island for rich people.
The plebs shouldn’t be travelling long haul this is reserved for those who are higher up the pecking order.
Typical right wing clap trap as far as I am concerned.
Living in a free market economy doesn’t mean wealth is for everyone some do very well whilst the majority just get by. The squeeze is now well and truely on the majority as we can’t afford to upset the others according to some.
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Once again it seem that some people only have one source for their news and thus a very jaundiced view of the events that are happening around them!
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Adrian #6
“The plebs shouldn’t be travelling long haul this is reserved for those who are higher up the pecking order.”
Whilst on other posts you champion the anti consumerist lobby. Or is consumerism limited to 4x4s and flat screen TVs?
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To Mr John Dix- do you actually know how many teachers went on “long haul” holidays and how many out of that figure were staying with family/friends thus making it a cheaper holiday than you assume?Furthermore are teachers not allowed to go further than Guernsey for some reason?I do not think it is anyone’s business to know where teachers go on holiday!
Just for the record my husband and I were stuck in New York for 12 days which should have been 4.We met a variety of others in the same situation including a married couple on their honeymoon who were both teachers.Finally they heard that they would be flying home and arriving at their home in the early hours of last Friday morning.The man,who teaches GCSE year,said he would be in work that day as he was very concerned about his students.I commented that he should stay at home and return refreshed on the Monday but he was adamant that he would go in on Friday.I think the majority of people would have taken the day off to recover!
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