Council workers

So, some of the lowest paid council workers were on strike during the week. I'm not (and never have been) a union man so normally I wouldn't have any sympathy with strikers. However they've been offered a pay rise of 2.49% and the Government has admitted that on its own figures inflation is running at 3.8% (the truth is probably nearer 7%) so on this occasion I frankly I don't f***ing blame them. By accepting a 2.49% increase they would in effect be taking a pay cut. To be fair an increase which is at least in line with inflation is needed. Nothing less will do.

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Maybe if those fat pigs over in Government got their piggy noses out of the troughs then there would be some more money in the pot to give these guys the rise they deserve.

Labour sucks big time... And don't start me on that buffon BROWN
 
The reality of the economic climate of the moment is that ON AVERAGE people are going to get poorer. For some this will be a below inflation pay settlement or below inflation increase in social security benefits. For some it will be the brutal route of unemployment. If the government had been prudent with the economy in the boom times there might be some money available to help, but they weren't and there isn't.

If a group gets a better pay rise then another group in society who are getting poorer already get even poorer. Typically we can expect workers who have a strong union to get increases at or above inflation. Inevitably in an economic downturn this can only be achieved by people like pensioners, those on benefits and those working in small firms getting poorer.

Many council workers are on low wages - though not that low, especially when perks incuding pensions are taken into account, plus the grade increase many (most?) will get in addition to the pay rise. It would be nice if they could get more - but not at the expense of someone else who is even poorer. Council tax is astronomic already, and if it goes higher it is the poor who will struggle. Given the abysmal state of the economy I think they are being offered a good deal. Think of the thousands of builders now unemployed, the pensioners struggling to pay fuel bills, all of us struggling to pay already astronomic council tax bills.

I would love a 2.49% wage increase - I'm looking at 0% or a decrease (I'm self employed). I would love my council tax bill to go up at only 2.49%, which might seem possible if council workers' salaries were kept to this increase.

Real leadership from trades unions would be to show the moral courage of restraint. There is no magic pot of money from the government or the rich or anyone else to pay the wage increase demanded. It is not even all of us that will be paying. It is specifically the poorest and most vulnerable in our society who will pay this increase. There is nothing fair in economics.
 
That's a valid point but I can't help thinking that workers at the bottom of the income scale, on little more than the minimum wage, are something of a special case. High and even average earners can afford a zero increase or even a pay cut to an extentr that they can't.
 
The average wage in the UK is £21,900 (Office of National Statistics). This is before tax and deductions.

I can't find a simple figure for the average pay of council workers and I'm struggling with finding consistent figures of total number of employees and total wage bill. But back of an envelope using the figures I can find I'm coming out at around this same figure for the average salary of the average council worker. I know there are lots well below this, and that somewhere within our councils there will be workers on little above minimum wage, but I think there are grounds to challenge the idea that council workers as a whole are low paid. I think they are about average paid. And they have secure jobs with pensions, which are major perks.
 

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