Public Sector Myths

There seems to be a lot of misinformation in the media at the moment about life in the public sector so I thought I would take 5 minutes to answer a few of these.

1. Public Sector Pensions are Non Contributory - Not true. Don't know the exact figure but I am guessing we pay about 3% of our wages. I've no doubt that our pensions may be better than in the private sector but it seems to me we have this argument the wrong way around.

Shouldn't we be talking about how to make private sector pensions better. The notion of governments trying to improve the lives of the people who elect them seems to be gone forever. Which is a bit of a shame I think. Anyway on to myth number 2.

2. Public Sector Workers don't pay Council/Income tax - It seems incredible somebody would think that but it has been said to me in the past. Let's be clear. We do, exactly as everybody else does.

3. The Public Sector is Inefficient/workers are Lazy etc. - The truth is in all large organisations there is inefficiency. Increasingly the public sector is run on a pretty ruthless business model complete with call centres and vehicle trackers.

I've no doubt there are cushy areas of the organisations. But again this is true of big organisations as a whole. I guarantee there are corners of ICI and Monsanto where the employees are on a good screw. All I am saying is in both cases this is the exception and by no means the rule.

The final myth comes in the way public sector workers are portrayed as being 'other' than people in the private sector. We aren't. It's mostly a matter of accident which of us work in the public sector and which the private.

We're ordinary people the same as everyone else. Not radical left wing militants. Just people going to work, paying taxes and trying to get on with our lives. 

We're also not the people who caused the deficit, despite all the government propaganda blaming us. We accept we have a role in bringing it down. And a pay freeze for a few years is a price I'm willing to pay. we can only bend so far before we say enough. That's what we're doing now.