EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Plans for Public Sector Regional Pay

Plans by chancellor George Osborne to pay lower salaries to public sector workers in poorer parts of the country have been condemned as "cruel" and "grotesque" by union leaders.

Civil servants could be moved to regional pay deals from as early as next month under budget proposals to be announced next week.

The chancellor will argue that public sector pay should mimic the private sector and be more reflective of local economies. He intends to start the process in three Whitehall departments in the coming financial year, as part of a phased introduction.

The Treasury regards the change as one of the most important measures it can introduce to rebalance the economy. Osborne claims the move would provide a boost to the private sector in the north and south-west, arguing that employers in these areas cannot afford to recruit staff owing to the relatively high public sector wages in cheaper areas of the country

Fine... I assume that council tax, VAT, Road Tax, Petrol Fuel Duty etc will also be reduced in these areas as will public transport costs, electricity ,gas, water and telephone costs. I also assume that the scheme will extend to MPs because after all representing a plush Southern constituency is obviously far more challenging and expensive than managing... oh hang on, do I see a flaw in these plans?

How would these plans affect the way we, (or the Dark Side) deliver our services to the local Health Economy?

What if you are in the public sector and you know someone doing a very similar job in the private sector who is on more dosh, gets a car, gets private health insurance and more flexible hours as well as an annual bonus in the £thousands and goes away once a year for a big booze up on the company?
Can I ask George & Dave to give me the same?

It won't make a jot of difference!

This time next year (once the Rebellion has died down, and I'm at the Chancellor's desk) ... we have plans to cut the Public Sector by at least 70%. That way, we may be able to claim that it is truly efficient.

I don't want to announce too many of our plans just yet ... but the whole of Central Government will be housed in one (small) building just off Whitehall.

Meanwhile, those of us on the Dark Side (or at least, my own version of it) should have no problem in keeping under the new £ 9,000 (before income tax becomes payable) threshold.

Imagine how much rent you could get if you turned Parliament building into flats. Put anyone who has ideas of becoming a politician into a psychiatric ward.

It is clear that there is a disparity in the biomedical engineering world between what the public sector and private sector will offer a qualified, experienced "practitioner."

Ultimately in this field, market forces prevail. The workforce will move / migrate to where the most rewarding packages are offered.
Within certain Healthcare regions, recruitment and retention will become an increasing problem, and the only way to fill vacancies will be to open these posts to the private sector (at a premium), or offer a local "weighting" allowance to attract public sector staff, sound a familiar scenario?

We always seem too be going round in circles to achieve the same aims, (but we make the same mistakes).
Low pay results in perceived low worth and ultimately poor service delivery. When we arrive at this point by a particularly tortuous route, we start again...

Whatever happened to the Agenda for Change concept of "equal pay for equal work"? Will those subject to a pay cut be able to do proportionally less work?

What do they plan to do for staff who work in a less well off area but live in a better off area (or vice versa)?

Also, if you cut they pay of public sector workers in an area, won't that just reduce the amount of spare cash they have, impacting on local businesses, who, due to reduced demand, will have to cut wages and/or jobs? So then the average private sector wage will go down again, then they'll have to cut public sector wages again...

Nationally agreed rates under Agenda For Change would appear to have been thrown out of the window.

The establishing of Foundation NHS Trusts appears to have been a cunning plan which allows Trusts more freedom over the way they raise and spend revenue.

We have all seen the way the nationally agreed job profiles have been modified and hybridised to fit a local requirement.

The pay you receive will be affected by the region in which you work (not live).
In theory, for some this will increasingly require a larger commute to maintain your standard of living, but dont worry about that, increased fuel prices will eat into any surplus cash earned...

Good last point Gordo! The public sector represents the biggest employers in the country, staff with less disposable income means less money into the local economy. Start of a downward spiral for other local business's including shops etc.

I wouldn't say that, just think how many private sector companies put on their ads equivalent to band 4,5,6 ect. I'm sure cuts in the public sector will filter down in the end to everybody else in the private sector sooner or later in a big race to the bottom.

Anyway I thought this announcement was an adjustment of the north/south divide. Doesn't North now starts above Felixstowe, follows the M25 and drops down to Southampton? I wonder how many fringe areas and outer London areas will suddenly become either fringe areas or even totally outside London?

I remember when I started in the NHS back in 1997, huge numbers of NHS biomedical laboratory trainee positions for science graduates offering £8000 per year at a time when such graduates could easily command £18000 per year immediately after graduation! The IBMS Journal published at the time had at least half of the pages carrying adverts for such vacancies, many of them multiple ones!

As I said before:- it won't make a jot of difference.

After all, when Private Companies run Public Services, the needs of the Shareholders always outweigh the needs of the Public. Or, in other words:- "Business as Usual".

Perhaps you guys are simply too close to the action to be able to see the wood for the trees, but the truth is that regardless of whether we're talking about the present government simply ignoring the wishes of the great majority of thinking people and bull-dozing through its "reforms", or the previous gang with its PFI scams, the value of public services is now only measured in how much they can be sold for.

When it comes to the Health Service, people talk about "patient choice" ... and similar clap-trap. But folk need to be be clear that they are not going to be the consumer in this bargain. Rather, they are going to become the product. That is, the more profits you generate for the insurers, the more attractive you (as the product) you will be. That will be the reality.

The only people who will benefit from the NHS Bill (or whatever it is they are calling it) are "Dave's mates":- the Company Shareholders.

It seems that the people are tired and beaten down. Fed up, I suppose, of being simply ignored. There is (or has been) no collective outrage about what is become of "our" Health Service. And worse still, the overclass of the autocratic, non-democratic regime (the 1%) has succeeded in getting the middle-class to hate the underclass (which is, of course, but one step forward in the Master Plan).

We've even seen it in comments on this thread:- the Dark Side -versus- the Public Sector. "Divide and Rule". Exactly what "they" (and their other mates ... the Media) want.

Some years ago Michael Foot said:- "We are not here in this world to find elegant solutions, pregnant with initiative, or to serve the ways and modes of profitable progress. No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth, and if you ask me about those insoluble economic problems that may arise if the top is deprived of their initiative, I would answer, to hell with them. The top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves. They always do".

But now it seems there is nobody to stop them. People have lost faith. This country seriously needs a hero!

People sometimes laugh at the mention of Michael Foot. Old Labour. An Old Duffer in a Duffel Coat. Ha, ha. But they are wrong, he was something else, something that we don't see much of today (and certainly not in Westminster):- he was a man of principle.