upcoming public worker strikes in the north

[Kidder81]

My issue would be SF talking out of both sides of their mouth on this issue, they will no doubt be on picket lines on 13 March showing "solidarity". Same fellas agreed the budget that is delivering the cuts

[seafoid]

My issue would be SF talking out of both sides of their mouth on this issue, they will no doubt be on picket lines on 13 March showing "solidarity". Same fellas agreed the budget that is delivering the cuts

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/25/guardian-view-scotland-debate-salmond-darling

"The reality for modern nation states is that they all face a global economic order in which corporate power is in the ascendant, threatening the livelihoods of the poor and averagely well-off with no respect for borders, and against which most elected politicians can only deploy limited authority. This is what modern politics is fundamentally about."

The Shinners have the same problem in power as Labour, the SNP, the French Socialists etc etc 

[johnneycool]

It does annoy me when public sector workers are striking for pay/benefits. In this regard they do very well compared to the private sector.

I would be more supportive if they where trying to tackle the working conditions of front line workers. I think it's a disgrace what is expected of a them. Giving pay rises does not help this situation and one could argue that it is counterproductive in solving it as the cost of hiring just increases putting more pressure on the front line.

I know NI water is not public sector anymore but the mentality is still there - they had a 20% pension contribution and where asked to contribute an extra 3% themselves and they go on strike. What happens they get a pay rise to cover the contributions backdated to last April . On call contributions increased and backdated. And the icing on the cake is that they don't have to contribute to the increase for maybe two years. That's the shit that annoys me

No they didn't. they worked to rule.

The fact that NI Water was reliant on staff doing overtime and what not just to maintain the service yet again points to poor senior management, the biggest problem facing the public services but never going to be addressed, just throw out the broad sweeping 'public sector workers are a disgrace' line.

A work to rule is considered industrial action in the South. Dunno about the North.

Yeah its industrial action, but its not a strike.

[gallsman]

I have a friend who works in Belfast City Council. Some of the stories you hear are incredible and have led me to develop a very cynical view of councils and the civil service in the north.

This particular friend has been promoted four times since he joined 18 months ago and also received an additional pay rise early last year. He then went on strike last summer. In his latest role he works in the field inspecting sites. As part of the new role he was issued with two smartphones. A Nokia Windows Phone as his "work mobile" and a Samsung Galaxy S4 ad it has some requisite software on it. I presume there's a Nokia contract in place for telephony services or something that turned out to be unable to meet all the requirements of the job, so the solution is to chuck another few hundred quid away. He also, bizarrely, gets a uniform allowance of about 250 quid to buy shirts, trousers, ties etc. Annually. Official council regulation clothing like hi viz jackets, hard boots etc does not come from this allowance.

Obviously this example can't be extrapolated to all public workers, but certainly in areas of the North's public sector, incompetent senior (mis)management and a sense of entitlement amongst the workers is absolutely rife.

[gallsman]

I have a friend who works in Belfast City Council. Some of the stories you hear are incredible and have led me to develop a very cynical view of councils and the civil service in the north.

This particular friend has been promoted four times since he joined 18 months ago and also received an additional pay rise early last year. He then went on strike last summer. In his latest role he works in the field inspecting sites. As part of the new role he was issued with two smartphones. A Nokia Windows Phone as his "work mobile" and a Samsung Galaxy S4 ad it has some requisite software on it. I presume there's a Nokia contract in place for telephony services or something that turned out to be unable to meet all the requirements of the job, so the solution is to chuck another few hundred quid away. He also, bizarrely, gets a uniform allowance of about 250 quid to buy shirts, trousers, ties etc. Annually. Official council regulation clothing like hi viz jackets, hard boots etc does not come from this allowance.

Obviously this example can't be extrapolated to all public workers, but certainly in areas of the North's public sector, incompetent senior (mis)management and a sense of entitlement amongst the workers is absolutely rife.

Just in light of the strikes last week, I thought it would be pertinent to re-visit this.

My friend mentioned above, whose area was not on strike, has been in his latest role for two months now. He's on a year long secondment so his salary went up. The job is now undergoing a salary review, for which he is eligible, as someone else who does the same job has put in for one. Literally just handing out raises with no performance review to back it up. Like Oprah ffs. In short then, in a few months time, this fella will have left a job he was in for 6 months for a secondment and seen his pay rise, siginificantly, twice since the secondment started. Madness.

[Jeepers Creepers]

The biggest discovery the Hubble telescope has yet to make is the bottomless black hole that the Belfast City Council gets it money from.

[gallsman]

The biggest discovery the Hubble telescope has yet to make is the bottomless black hole that the Belfast City Council gets it money from.

That's the wrong way round - the real black hole is where does all the money fecking go.