I have worked in the HSE for 19 years and have to say I find this very hard to believe. The union rep should not have access to any employees record.
How safe are public service jobs?
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I have worked in the HSE for 19 years and have to say I find this very hard to believe. The union rep should not have access to any employees record.
I get 20 days hols a year in the public sector, same as private sector. However, I can work up flexi days, usually 1.5 a month. These really help to 'keep' my 20 days hols. In the private sector, I would think twice before taking a half day to sort out something with the house, as I felt I had little hols, and I could use up the 20 days very fast by taking random days.
I got no paid sick leave in the private sector. I used to get 7 paid sick days when I worked in a financial co. five years ago. Then I was made redundant. I moved every 6 mos to a year from job to job, trying to get better pay and conditions. However, all these jobs gave no sick pay. In fact last year, I got the flu and was off for 3 days with a doctors cert. I didn't get paid despite working 45 hour week for months coming up to this. I think the 45 hr plus a week contributed to the flu.
Usually I get the flu or a heavy cold once or twice a year. I can come into work on the second day of a heavy cold. I find it hard coming to work on the firstday of a heavy cold as I would have headaches and be dizzy, not good for someone doing accounts. Sometimes I had no choice but to take the first day of a heavy cold off, even though I wouldn't get paid.
I got no paid sick leave in the private sector. I used to get 7 paid sick days when I worked in a financial co. five years ago. Then I was made redundant. I moved every 6 mos to a year from job to job, trying to get better pay and conditions. However, all these jobs gave no sick pay. In fact last year, I got the flu and was off for 3 days with a doctors cert. I didn't get paid despite working 45 hour week for months coming up to this. I think the 45 hr plus a week contributed to the flu.
Usually I get the flu or a heavy cold once or twice a year. I can come into work on the second day of a heavy cold. I find it hard coming to work on the firstday of a heavy cold as I would have headaches and be dizzy, not good for someone doing accounts. Sometimes I had no choice but to take the first day of a heavy cold off, even though I wouldn't get paid.
FutureProof
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Do you get any sort of annual pay rise in public service jobs?
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Yorrick
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From what we have been hearing over the last while the impression is being given that the private sector is a absolute model of efficiency.
During the boom times how many people were left waiting by builders, tradesmen wtc who have no concept of customer service. They took deposits to hold jobs and then did not turn up or turned up late while running several jobs at the one time.
If instead of being greedy they provided a good service to their customers, many of whom were ordinary people getting refurbishments, extension etc they would continue to be getting steady work.
When you read the list of tax defaulters issued by the Revenue Commissioners there isnt any Clerical Officers on the list.
During the boom times how many people were left waiting by builders, tradesmen wtc who have no concept of customer service. They took deposits to hold jobs and then did not turn up or turned up late while running several jobs at the one time.
If instead of being greedy they provided a good service to their customers, many of whom were ordinary people getting refurbishments, extension etc they would continue to be getting steady work.
When you read the list of tax defaulters issued by the Revenue Commissioners there isnt any Clerical Officers on the list.
PeterGriffin
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Ring them now and something tells me you might get a better response...what's the area code for Australia again??
I think many in the building trade lived by the motto "make hay while the sun shines"....granted others lived by the motto "stand and deliver" but that's a different thing. I basically think there just isn't enough work going around at the moment to keep them all going
Probably cause they're the ones doing up the list
Ok....I'm being a little cheeky with some of what I'm saying but it really highlights the difference between public & private jobs. When times get bad for a private company...you're gone, if you're not running your company properly....you're gone, the same things don't seem to apply in the public sector. It doesn't matter how inefficient a private company is because if that cost is being passed onto the consumer eventually they'll just shop around, generally we can't do that with our public services
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I agree that the building sector was grossly inefficient (so is the public sector BTW). The SME sector is not much better. The one thing that made us look good through the early and mid 90’s was the multinational manufacturing sector which, somewhat ironically, has been nearly killed by the increase in our cost base driven by wage inflation caused by the building boom and public sector pay bonanza.
Not too many of them on the list of people who lose their homes when their businesses fail either.
Is there such a list? Can you provide numbers/stats of such people who lose their homes relative to public servants?
If not, your contention is bogus.
Can you explain how public sector pay contributes to a decline in the manufacturing sector?
Really? Have a think about it (and how people re-mortgage their home and/or use their life savings to start businesses) and come back to me.
The whole economy is joined up; pay rises for 25% of the workforce cause inflation for the whole economy. This makes the whole country more expensive to do business in and less competitive internationally. It's really very simple (and universally accepted by economists).
In very simple terms if everyone in the country gets a 10% pay increase nobody is really better off, we are just 10% less competitive internationally.
That (may) explain how pay affects competitiveness. You attributed a lack of competiveness to apublic servce to a "public service pay bonanza" which, even it existed, is something quite different.
You clearly have an agenda against the public service which wouldn't be unacceptable if it was moderately well informed. It took the OECD several months with several people to produce an analysis of the Irish civil service. You reckon you can do it quite nicely over a couple of posts with your University of Liveline level of rigour
I work in the public service and have no objection to constructive criticism and acknowledge that taxpayers are entiltled to expect good value for money. However, the tone and content of your regular musings suggests you don't really have a wide enough knowledge of the public service to allow you draw the sweeping conclusions you do.
Until you actually know what you're talking about, you should really desist.
Complainer
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z103
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The explanation given certainly does explain how pay affects competitiveness.
Our company is lucky enough to have enough work to hire someone extra. However, the cost of employing an Irish person makes it prohibitive - we wouldn't be able to compete with our international competitors. Instead, we work extra hours, and look at outsourcing the work to other countries. If this is how our small company thinks, imagine how it is for the likes of Dell etc.
The public sector pay bonanza is a root cause to all of this. Inflating wage costs across the board.
In addition, who would want to work for our company when they can get at least double the money and tons of perks in the public sector instead? (doing a similar job)
We also hear today that the national pay deal 'may need a review'
[broken link removed]
lol.
Try reading what I have posted and the links that have gone with them.
Once again; On average, public sector pay in the other EU countries examined was 11,000 lower than in Ireland. An average teacher s salary in Ireland in 2004 was found to be over 48,000 some 35% ahead of that in the UK and 25% higher than Germany. Health and social workers in Ireland earned an average of 46,000, which was nearly double average earnings for the sector in Finland and about 30% ahead of those in the UK.
These were the highest rates in the study. Data also from the EU Commission show that average economy-wide earnings in Ireland are 13% higher than in the euro area. The differential of 30% enjoyed by Irish public sector workers in considerably larger than this and suggests that public sector pay in Ireland has fallen out of sync with that elsewhere in Europe Source (from IBECs Danny McCoy quoting OECD and CSO)
In your experience. In my experience it is very common.
IIRC, it is also the experience of other public sector workers on this very site.
Nobody is trying to tar the entire public sector with the same brush just like people can't claim that all public and civil servants are paid too much. However, all research and reports show that levels of sick leave in the public sector is a lot higher than in the private sector. You can argue over the reasons for this but you can't argue the basic fact. I love the way people in the public sector give out about 'chancers and lazy soandsos' but yet through their Unions fight every attempt to bring in proper performance reviews. Look at the recent talks about trying to root out underperforming teachers.
I'll let her know. AFAIK she's only there about 6 years but having come from the private sector she gets angry as the waste, unions and bad work practices. Maybe it’s because she sees money wasted as money which could have been spent helping sick people. Perhaps after 19 years she’ll play by the rules but I hope not since she went into healthcare to help sick people (idealists; what a strange bunch!).