Public sector employment

[izzy eckerslike]

The truth is that over the years councils have 'created' new posts that they managed perfectly well without for years. Our council until recently had ' newly created posts' almost every week & usually for something totally useless to the community in general & also usually included a separate job as a manager to 'manage' the other new post

 

[DanTheMan]

I work for the jobcentre and I'd gladly sacrifice my job if it meant a reform of the system, I'm just worried that it will be cut in the wrong places. The way the system works now, just cutting jobs without reform would mean unimaginable chaos as the system has tailored itself around the amount of staff.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

Where I work they will be making a 100 staff cut across all areas, which is a lot of wages 900/100. Out of my area 50% is going 26/13. I am not worried about job cuts because as mentioned in other posts if they cut it any more there just won't be enough staff to cover so they will eitha have to shut down or recruit. Who knows.

 

[Dolph]

I really hope the new government (whoever it is) looks at creating self-funding public service mutuals owned by the staff. I honestly think this would be the best solution, linking services with charges in some way (for example, the CSA could be run on a commission basis) and break the unnecessary link between the service and the state in a fair way that puts the workers firmly in control.

Am I living in dreamland?

 

[Raumarik]

I really hope the new government (whoever it is) looks at creating self-funding public service mutuals owned by the staff. I honestly think this would be the best solution, linking services with charges in some way (for example, the CSA could be run on a commission basis) and break the unnecessary link between the service and the state in a fair way that puts the workers firmly in control.

Am I living in dreamland?

No I agree Dolph, there's plenty of opportunity for parts of the public sector to be turned into staff mutuals. Especially the likes of certain I.T. teams and support staff who already work closely with private firms but are employed by local government or the NHS. The only issue would be the data - many people aren't keen on private firms holding it, although lets face it that usually means its more secure.

 

[Dolph]

No I agree Dolph, there's plenty of opportunity for parts of the public sector to be turned into staff mutuals. Especially the likes of certain I.T. teams and support staff who already work closely with private firms but are employed by local government or the NHS. The only issue would be the data - many people aren't keen on private firms holding it, although lets face it that usually means its more secure.

The public sector has a much worse record of data loss. Further any attempt to mutualise public sector groupings would also involve splitting them up into competing units, rather than doing one service wholesale, which means each unit wouldn't hold the entire data, making it a much less tempting target

It's a win-win from my point of view, and would succeed in putting in place the structural incentive to do well and protect frontline, rather than protect managers and damage frontline to encourage greater budget next time.

 

[Ev0]

We've been going through 'resturcturing' for the last 18 months/2 years where there have been quite a few budget cuts and redundancies.

This year we've been told we're 'safe' but next year the cuts will come back, although they aren't expecting massive staffing cuts.

We get a lot of our funding from European pots of money so not sure how we'll be effected, but I can see us being shut down even though it's not been mentioned.

However it won't happen overnight so will have plenty of time to sort myself out, and if it does come to it hopefully time things right so I get the redundancy money before starting a new job

 

[LordSplodge]

anyone else here work in the public sector and is now worried about their job ?

No as I'm one of the more senior and longer serving in my department. Cuts will come and if IT is hit they'll cut the young-uns and last to start first.

Mind you with such a tiny department for a large organisation my work load won't be fun...

 

[Will]

it started last year Will, my local jobcenter went to a 3 day week to "help with customers more efficiently" acording to one of the advisors. so cutting will probably mean closing it fully.

Which job centre do you work at? A 3 three day week is unimaginable where I work, we even went to late night opening for a period so we were doing interviews until half past six....extremely unpopular with the customers as you can imagine, but it was a numbers game...

A lot of new staff were taken on for the recession, at one stage at one job centre in Wolverhampton there was a problem with too few desks for staff - you had around 70 people who didn't have a desk to call their own until more office space was found elsewhere in the city.

Benefits provision is an odd one though, the nature of making a supposedly standardised service universally accesible to all means you end up with some absolutely tiny offices with a handful of staff, and in large cities with high unemployment you end up with vast offices.

Like other people have posted though, welfare reform is bound to be on the agenda of the next government, and personally I would be in favour of it as well as cost cutting in the public sector. In its current form it is incredibly expensive, and some of the things that are allowed to happen are simply pouring government cash away for no good use.

A pet hate of mine that must cost millions nationally is what often happens with the young people I deal with who are claiming JSA - they chose to move out from their parents place (where they live rent free with no taxpayer subsidy) to a new place (deposit paid for by parents) and then promptly claim housing allowance and council tax benefit to keep them in their own flat.

This also makes it harder for them to be better off in work than on benefits - where as say, 20 hours per week at NMW, would be fine for them when living rent free with parents, it isn't enough for them to pay the rent/council tax by themselves and results in them being worse off than on benefits. The system should not allow things like this to happen in my view - if you want to move out from home, pay for it through work, don't take advantage of the state.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Our company is growing and growing, it doesn't seem to be affected by the recession one bit.

 

[Xordium]

Front-line services have been slashed for a while now - it is just not as newsworthy as some other things. The irony being that any new government will be able to say they have not reduced the services since the election when actually in some areas the chop had already got the go-ahead a fair few months before. Got to give it to them they do cover every base to let themselves of the hook.

 

[Yozz76]

Those in favour of public sector cuts are endorsing job losses. Why anyone would be happy to see someone else lose their job is beyond me. I suspect it is usually because they think someone elses loss is their gain. I despise the selfish society we live in, I really do.

 

[nichorob]

Those in favour of public sector cuts are endorsing job losses. Why anyone would be happy to see someone else lose their job is beyond me. I suspect it is usually because they think someone elses loss is their gain. I despise the selfish society we live in, I really do.

Agreed to an extent. But there is a lot of bloat in the public sector, especially in the councils. It was only around Christmas that a London council wanted to employ 5x 'Health & Safety Officers' at £40k a head before they had to get pulled due to bad publicity.

 

[Trifid]

Those in favour of public sector cuts are endorsing job losses. Why anyone would be happy to see someone else lose their job is beyond me. I suspect it is usually because they think someone elses loss is their gain. I despise the selfish society we live in, I really do.

Natural waste would be much better. Just don't re-advertise a position if someone leaves. It really needed to be done a long time ago though.

 

[Dolph]

Those in favour of public sector cuts are endorsing job losses. Why anyone would be happy to see someone else lose their job is beyond me. I suspect it is usually because they think someone elses loss is their gain. I despise the selfish society we live in, I really do.

I don't want to see job losses, but all jobs have to be justified, and if they aren't, then they have to go.

The big question that needs to be asked about every job is whether there is a genuine net gain through employing someone, at the relevant salary, to do that job, vs paying them unemployment benefits.

The state cannot and must not be allowed to run welfare jobs, which is exactly what Labour have, again, produced. These decisions must be made on economic, not political grounds, and the services must be reformed.

Do I want cuts? No, but I didn't want the government employing a whole load of unnecessary people either. The latter is what is leading to the former. The solution to prevent it in the future is to change the culture of the services to drive efficiciency structurally and to remove the ability of the state to create pointless jobs in the first place.

 

[Xordium]

I don't want to see job losses, but all jobs have to be justified, and if they aren't, then they have to go..

House of Parliament might be a good place to start I am not really sure we need that many when they are not actually voting, in the main, for their constituencies issues and best interest or even actually being present to vote in the first place.

 

[Dolph]

House of Parliament might be a good place to start I am not really sure we need that many when they are not actually voting, in the main, for their constituencies issues and best interest or even actually being present to vote in the first place.

I agree entirely, we are over-represented in parliament and the number should be cut to around the 500 mark...

 

[Robbo]

This. Public sector workers are work shy clock watchers. They need to start working properly for their wages - you'd probably find you could do the same amount of work with half the staff.

Indeed, I was quite bothered by it. I actually got TOLD to go and have more tea breaks as it helps the whole place "socialise". To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

The people actually had their tea break, and then spent the rest of the time waiting for the next tea break... ridiculous.

Some of these people were part of a "secretary team" for some of the higher members of staff, they had THREE secretaries, who spent their time doing their nails, and one was answering the phones

I've heard from a lot of people that this is often the case

Infact following from that, the entire system there failed miserably, thus why I left!

 

[Xordium]

/snip

Well you seem to have seen a very different face to public sector employment to me where working 12 hrs without a break > 5 mins is a norm for an awful lot of people. Guess this is not such a black and white issue after all.

 

[GAC]

Which job centre do you work at? A 3 three day week is unimaginable where I work, we even went to late night opening for a period so we were doing interviews until half past six....extremely unpopular with the customers as you can imagine, but it was a numbers game...

didnt say i worked in it i just used it for a year when i was out of work, to add to it the next nearest one now wont take people on for there first interview, as its full. so you get transferd to another one about 13 miles away.

the job center in question on the 3 day week doesnt even do interviews, all you can do is sign on once your claims active. so you have to get transferd there. its been that way for 2 years that i know of.