UK NEWS
FURY AS LABOUR MSPS BACK CIVIL SERVICE STRIKES
Matthew Sinclair of the TaxPayers’ Alliance
By Rod Mills, Chief Reporter
LABOUR was last night accused of hypocrisy after scrapping Holyrood meetings in support of a civil service strike aimed at its London bosses.
More than 30,000 public sector workers across Scotland will walk out today for 48 hours.
The strike, which is expected to hit emergency call centres, courts, border controls, driving test centres, and job and benefit offices, will also involve Holyrood civil servants.
But many Labour MSPs, on a salary of £56,671, will “work from their constituencies” to avoid crossing the picket line.
Party officials confirmed that a group meeting had been cancelled which was intended to be held today, and it is understood MSPs have been left to decide individually whether to attend parliament.
Campaigners criticised the “hypocrisy” of politicians supporting a strike which is part of a dispute with Gordon Brown’s administration at Westminster.
Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is outrageous for political staff, still being paid at taxpayers’ expense, to not go into work just because the civil servants are striking. It is bad enough that services are going to be compromised, despite public sector staff getting a much better deal than those in the private sector during the recession, without unjustified sympathy strikes making the situation worse.”
The walkout over planned reforms of generous redundancy terms threatens to be the biggest outbreak of industrial unrest in the service since 1987, with 270,000 striking across the UK. Further disruption was also planned in the run-up to the general election by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, the only one of six civil service unions which has rejected the money-saving measures.
The PCS claimed changes to the civil service compensation scheme would rob staff of up to a third of their entitlements when they leave their jobs. It said it expected huge support for the strike, leading to cancelled driving tests and court cases.
The Scottish Labour Party refused to comment on the issue, but a spokesman confirmed the group meeting for its 46 MSPs today had been cancelled. A Tory spokesman said: “We will all be at work and looking after the interests of Scotland.”
A spokesman for the SNP said: “The SNP group have no scheduled meetings in parliament on these days, our MSPs will be working in their constituencies.”
A Lib Dem spokeswoman said the party’s 16 MSPs would work in their constituencies on Monday “as normal”.
GOLD PLATED WORKING CONDITIONS?????
09.03.10, 9:27am
The person who wrote this load of garbage has obviously not worked in a Jobcentre! Being verbally abused (Mr Blunkett was in charge at the time, decreed that we had to accept "colourful street language!") and physically attacked with a telephone handset, is not what I would call "Gold Plated"!!!!
• Posted by: RichardMac • Report Comment
TIME FOR A CULL
08.03.10, 3:16pm
The private tax payers can no longer afford to fund the gold plated employment conditions that the public sector enjoys and they are long overdue for a good cull to bring reality back to the public sector. The days of gold plated pensions and jobs for life may have been justified decades ago when their pay was allegedly lower than the private sector but with higher pay, long vacations and platinum pensions their current conditions are unjustified and unsustainable. Its even more galling when bonus's are paid out on a whim when its nothing more than a healthy pay rise. The service they give the public is virtually non existent as I can attest to having just retired.
In the private sector my pension provider took just 3 weeks to arrange my pension and have it paid to me exactly when it was due. In the public sector despite 4 months notice I'm still waiting for the Dept of Work & Pensions, (an oxymoron if ever there was one) to pay my state pension even though I've emailed them, faxed them and sent letters to them asking for it. The HMRC with its taxation box tickers is even worse with their arithmetically challenged retards who have me down as drawing two state pensions for this financial year and causing tax to be withheld despite my gross pensions being under the tax threshold.
However its done and in the current financial state of the country, we need a severe cull of the shirkers that inhabit the public sector space as we can't afford free loaders not pulling their weight. Its time workers in the public sector from the bottom to the top woke up and learned that we the tax payer are paying for them and they should provide a proper service for a change.
• Posted by: Costa_Blanca_Mike • Report Comment
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