Union Strikes

[Wolfracer]

There's a big box on the table in front of the window. Help yourself...

Boll@x, fell asleep - It was a hard days work today - did I miss much?
See you finished off all that popcorn, greedy feckers

[Albannach]

Sounding like you want to Privatise everything, Privatise the NHS too?

Private medicine is the way forward, far less kerfuffle, much faster appointments, next to no waiting lists and far nicer digs.

If it werent for private medicine subsidising them, there would be very few fancy things like MRI scanners in many of our hospitals.

[Chillitt]

Andy each branch of civil service has vastly different pension deal/agreement history.

That is why the Prison, Fire and RGN {who are by far the biggest} all stood together and worked today.

Much more complicated than people are trying to suggest.

Apparently prison officers have on average 2 years of retirement before they shuffle off. It's probably difficult to motivate them to strike over pensions..

[Rustinho]

At school today virtually everyone in my department was in work. So, not only did they vote to strike & hence get the school closed to kids today - they also turned up for work and will get paid.

[smurfL6]

Private medicine is the way forward, far less kerfuffle, much faster appointments, next to no waiting lists and far nicer digs.

If it werent for private medicine subsidising them, there would be very few fancy things like MRI scanners in many of our hospitals.

Are you serious? I'm sure the founders of the NHS 'free health care for all' would love to hear your crap - I dont so Nos Dda

[Albannach]

Andy each branch of civil service has vastly different pension deal/agreement history.

That is why the Prison, Fire and RGN {who are by far the biggest} all stood together and worked today.

Much more complicated than people are trying to suggest.

I know. The pension scheme I am a member of is currently about 120% subscribed, the reason I have to pay more in isn't because of the scheme's rules or that the scheme is in trouble, it's because of government legislation on Pension Schemes.

All schemes will change; eventually.

[Sancho]

At school today virtually everyone in my department was in work. So, not only did they vote to strike & hence get the school closed to kids today - they also turned up for work and will get paid.

All the teachers I know have been at work today. Some of the sorted a few bits and pieces out, most of them did their marking so they could have the weekend off.

[yoshie]

Apparently prison officers have on average 2 years of retirement before they shuffle off. It's probably difficult to motivate them to strike over pensions..

58yr is still the average expectancy for Officers, they will go out if the current deal is not finalised but in all probability it will be with the RGN and Fire Brigade.

Silly arse won't be talking damp squib then and I will have a real shit day at the office. I will however, be fully in support of the lads.

[Albannach]

Are you serious? I'm sure the founders of the NHS 'free health care for all' would love to hear your crap - I dont so Nos Dda

Have you experienced privite medical treatment? If you have, you wouldn't disagree; so, as you've not, you can't say I'm talking crap?

[BUSHWHACKER]

Popcorn is all gone and I've got a numb bum!
I'm wide awake though 'cos of all the Coke I'm drinkin'.

[Wolfracer]

All the teachers I know have been at work today. Some of the sorted a few bits and pieces out, most of them did their marking so they could have the weekend off.

0845-1515 with breaks. Yep got to agree with you, there's definitely no time left in that long day to put tick VG on 30 scrawls...

[Sancho]

0845-1515 with breaks. Yep got to agree with you, there's definitely no time left in that long day to put tick VG on 30 scrawls...

My mum was a teacher and, believe me, they work a lot of hours.

[Sancho]

Have you experienced privite medical treatment? If you have, you wouldn't disagree; so, as you've not, you can't say I'm talking crap?

I liked the system in Australia where everyone is issued with a card that, basically, has credit against it for medical treatment. If you want a check up, you can go to a UK-standard doctor, have the appointment give them the card and there's no charge. If you want a reasonable level of service, you go wherever you like, give them the card and they knock the allowance off your bill.

Same deal with opticians and dentists. Suited me just fine.

[Albannach]

I liked the system in Australia where everyone is issued with a card that, basically, has credit against it for medical treatment. If you want a check up, you can go to a UK-standard doctor, have the appointment give them the card and there's no charge. If you want a reasonable level of service, you go wherever you like, give them the card and they knock the allowance off your bill.

Same deal with opticians and dentists. Suited me just fine.

That sounds quite good. I'd go for that, it's essentially the same thing as (in my case) BUPA. The longest wait is usually the GP appointment, once referred it's like lightning.

[tavvi]

10 years ago my employer (a pension company) provided a non contributory pension which entitled employees to 1/60th of final salary for every year of service. It cost them a minimum of 20% of the salary bill to fund. That was about as good a pension as anyone could get. The scheme was started decades ago when the theory was that you couldn't expect other employers to provide the best level of pension (through your products) if you didn't provide it to your own employees.

Guess what - membership of that scheme was part of my contract. But guess what, terms and conditions of employment can change - and they do - rather frequently.

Two years ago the pension had been eroded to the point where the final salary scheme was closed to new entrants and existing members had to pay 11% of salary to maintain the same accrual rate.
Two weeks ago we were informed (by the union) that they had reluctantly agreed to the closure of the final salary scheme to any new money.

I was more than a little hacked off with this gradual erosion of something I had signed up to on day one but the reality was that the company could not afford to keep funding the scheme.

This is a very common story across the whole of the private sector.

Having already been through the experience that public sector workers are currently going through I am obviously able to understand / appreciate their situation. However, I see no reason why they should be insulated from the economic realities that the private sector have been exposed to.

I don't care if some union reps claim that current public sector pensions are affordable. And recent studies appear to show that there is no definitive evidence to support the contention that public sector workers are paid less than those in the private sector (a contention that has been used to justify a higher public sector pension entitlement).

I would be in favour of public sector pension entitlement being set at the same level as the private sector - perhaps calculated by averaging the pension provision of a representative sample of private sector companies. If you wanted to be bl00dy-minded the 'representative' sample of companies would have to include more than 50% with absolutely zero pension provision! Public sector pension provision could then be reviewed every so many years to ensure that major differences from private sector provision did not develop.

There is always a risk that this approach would mean a 'race to the bottom' and maybe that is something that we need to guard against. I have no idea how that could be done, however, in the meantime I think we are still a long way away from the 'bottom' and that some adjustment to public sector pension provision is necessary.

I don't know if the membership of this forum is representative of the population as a whole but if it is then it would seem that public sector workers can expect zero sympathy from all except those in the public sector.

Sorry for the length of this post but the thing that has hacked me off most today has been the number of people on strike who seem to think that those in the private sector 'don't get it' and that all they are doing is trying to protect the contracts they signed up to. The reality is that they don't get it - the rest of us have been through it all already and they need to wake up and smell the coffee.