Public Pay to be brought in line with Private

[MisterTommyH]

There are 'leaks' that next weeks budget will include pay freezes or smaller increases to bring public sector pay into line with private sector pay for comparible jobs.

Is this fair / unfair?

Discuss.

[punyXpress]

Long overdue!

[maviczap]

Does the survey take into account that some private sector jobs come with perks such as a company car, free BUPA health care?

I know a company car isn't the perk it used to be, but servicing & petrol are paid by the company?

Yes, maybe the public sector do get paid more in real terms, but have other benefits that haven't been included in the calculations?

[yorkie_chris]

Since you get the *rse taxed off you for any perks these days I don't think that matters so much.

They can keep freezing my pay if they need to, i'm by no means rich but i'll survive and i'm happy to have a job! Hopefully once the countries fixed we wont have a crazy overspending labour government come back in and ruin it all again by creating a public sector that is almost 60% of the working population, idiots.

[MisterTommyH]

Having looked into a bit more it seems that it's to do with the fact that public sector workers in London get 0.5% more than private sector workers, in the West Midlands it's 8% more and in Wales it's 18% more.

So in effect, public sector workers all over the country are getting 'London Rates' without the expense of living in London. I'm paraphrasing and might not have got that spot on.

From the news I saw I think it's across the board and not necessarily in jobs that come with company cars etc. I know people who have them at our company are taxed on them and you don't get petrol paid. You have to put petrol in yourself and claim back 5p per mile (because it's a company car) while the rest of us get 45p to cover wear and tear etc..... so it's arguable whether it is a benefit to have a company car (I think 45p is comparible to public sector)

[maviczap]

Its going to take a whole bunch of public servants to work out this pay business

Its already part of the wage process

London weighting
Inner London weighting

So some new regional rates

Scouse weighting
Sporan weighting

Works North of Peterborough weighting

Humber weighting

I live in surfing country weighting

I live with sheep weighting

My job (teaching) has a london weighting, its an extra 6 or 7k i think. I'm pretty sure all public sector jobs will be the same. THere's no way they are going to pay london rates for people up north when they can get then for northern rates.

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by Tommy H

So in effect, public sector workers all over the country are getting 'London Rates' without the expense of living in London. I'm paraphrasing and might not have got that spot on.

No. Public sector workers AFAIK get paid London weighting (inner & outer) which is an extra allowance for working in London. Covers transport costs to get into the smoke etc. That's over and above the national rate of pay

So if they weren't paid this allowance the pay gap would be even less, maybe under the private sector pay level.

I know London weighting didn't cover my extras for working in London.

There's very little point in them trying to pitch the public sector against private. They need to shrink the public sector and the gap will naturally be filled by the private sector. A ****load of people are going to get binned and hard times are definitely ahead. They can only control the public sector pay directly though, the private sector can set its own pay and conditions etc. I wouldnt want to be middle management in the public sector now though! Front line for once is going to be safer!