http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... ntrol.html


Wow yes they are over paid.


That is not a fair comparison. Private sector teachers do not have over crowded classes, have to deal with disinterested parents, have issues like drugs or weapons to deal with. They also get free education for family members which more than makes up for the difference. Ask any teacher who is not dependant on the income if they would swap and I guess that most would.

So the public sector worker gets paid 1.58% more.

How exactly is that "significantly higher pay"?

Because they get "Gold plated Pensions too", or so many would like you to believe.

It also highlights that the private sector shafts the majority of employees considering the majority of public sector workers aren't on fanciful salaries.

And now the Tories want to shaft the public sector employees. The fact that the private sector has slashed pay will be reversed when the economy recovers so what will they do then? While there may be reasonable claims of over management in some public sector departments it might be more down to the fact that central government demands so much information from the public sector for league tables.

the problem with public sector pensions is not the fact they have to be paid but the underinvestment by Govt. to ensure there payment
ie. let the taxpayer pick up the bill but the underinvestment and the huge amount of public sector workers have created a problem

the private sector can not afford the tax increases that are required to pay the promised pension
lack of tax revenue with a slowly decreasing economy , its not rocket science ...

In our case, our pay is already roughly equivalent to the private sector. They can't really cut it any more, or all the decent staff will just leave for the private sector anyway. Same money but less having to deal with the idiotic edicts of politicians? Show me where I sign. Plus I suspect the politicians don't want the 'we have to pay the market rate to get the best talent' excuse for large executive pay packets thrown back at them.

So essentially what they're trying to do is claw a ton of money back by basically shafting the public sector pension schemes. Last estimate I saw was if the proposed changes go through, I'll lose something like £100K off my final pension annuity. Which is a fair lump of cash by anybody's standards. The dispute about this has become increasingly acrimonious - the point where the executive has actually issued personal legal proceedings against some of the union representatives individually, which regardless of the merits of either side's arguments is an utterly scandalous thing to do.

Anyway, there's your answer. They can't shaft the public sector's wages any more, so they're trying to shaft the public sector pensions the way most private sector pension schemes have been shafted in the last decade or so.

Jon

You've got to be taking the piss! We've had nothing but pay cuts in IT here and we're still getting shafted. We didn't get significantly more than the private sector in the first place either.

That only applies to the top levels everyone else can go to hell. My council has raised the lower rates of pay but capped the top levels at 8 times the lowest rate. That will mean a serious drop for those at the top. It will mean that they leave but then it will create openings for good staff from within.

+1 for public sector pensions being shafted at the moment.

About five years ago was the perfect time to retire from medicine. Unfortunately, I'm not even 30 and am going to have to bear the brunt of the previous generations' successes.

There are a number of reasons. Poor investment returns have been crucial and low interest rates do not help long term. Basically the level of conttributions to give you fair chance of a pension approaching final salary schemes needs to be around 33 to 35% of your annual salary, and that has to be done for as long as possible. Governments raiding pensions have been big factors as well both Tory and Labour, though the two biggest causes are poor investment returns and unrealistic actuarial expectations.

Yup, the GF has been waiting ages just to go up to the band that she's been doing the job of for several years.

I can see why big headlines come out though, a recent retirement (past couple of years) of a Trust head saw a golden handshake of a quarter of million. They did help get Trust status and so on but, still, a quarter of a mill while other staff are getting underpaid...

It's the same with pensions in the private sector. My company didn't just shut down final salary scheme to new members, they shut it down full stop. Every one is on defined contributions now.

I don't work for the same company anymore, but I have a final salary scheme with them and they keep on contacting me to see if I want to move the money elsewhere.

The words "Hell No!" spring to mind.