Public Pay Talks - see mod warning post 4293

I dont think a deal being agreed before Christmas is likely.

I think it is much more likely the discussions will drag on until late February/March, then a month to ballot members, then it will be implemented around May/June. I think the Government will likely "back date" any deal to January first with a lowball percentage. I think people will end up voting in favour of that looking at the one off "bonus" of back pay. I imagine that is the Governments ploy. It worked before so it will likely work again IF the Unions recommend accepting the deal.

That would be quite difficult to "average", as promotions happen a lot faster now than they did when I joined the service (1986). How promotions are made has also changed (used to be percentages of internal and external) and there are a lot more opportunities to move up now, (esp. open competitions which I think run on average every 2 years).

Indeed, even the parent department you were assigned to had a huge impact on how fast you could move up. Bigger departments (e.g Revenue) typically meant more chances of promotion internally.

Not to mention a few embargos along the way and EO was the highest entry point for admin staff for a long time. (Can't remember for professional / techncial grades).

But it wasn't at all uncommon for someone to be stuck at the same grade for 10/ 15/ 20 years.

Should be renamed the public pay bickering thread!

Correct. I am not happy with my wages being eroded by inflation. I don't think anyone public or private should be happy about that or accept it.

I don't understand the dole comparison. When you start in the Public Sector you're starting a career with the potential to move up grades and significantly increase your salary. If people want to stay on the dole with that quality of life, its such a minority in this country, I really don't care. The majority on the dole need it and I am not going to use their ok social welfare to manufacture an argument. I hate that attitude in this country. I don't deal with CO's or see their lives on a day to day basis so I can't really comment if they deserve a pay rise or not. I don't see it so I don't know.

I do know there are huge recruitment and retention problems with teachers, post-docs, and other areas of education. Something needs to be done about that whether that be in terms of pay or working conditions. I think teachers earn a good wage with good other benefits (the holidays) but they're leaving the country and we need to address that. The same, I am assuming is true for CO's (in terms of recruitment not that they're leaving the country). One of the issues for teachers is that their Unions are batshit.

Am I realistic about what we can achieve? Sure. Do I think we will get 15% over 3 years? No. Do I think we will get something that makes up for the mismatch in inflation from the last deal and over the next year? No. Hence, its very likely I will vote to reject the deal. That is only because I am comfortable enough and don't need the money so will reject it on principle. However, I won't judge anyone for "making themselves poorer" or slam the Unions. They're not as strong as I'd like them to be but **** me we are a lot better with them. Their strength is a reflection of how strong their members are imo.