Freedom to Choose

Public Workers wages are to be frozen to bring them in line with the private sector.

So, Mr Osbourne has now decided he can freeze the wages of teachers and nurses, (those are the named groupings), as they seem to be 8% higher than comparable jobs in the private sector. Well, this is great news for the Magnificent M.

Now, although the pay might be frozen maybe now M will be able to move up a grade to get more money because she is capped because of her school size. And of course no extra amount of work gets you any extra money. All after school clubs are done for free. No overtime for teaching so that will surely be introduced to bring them in line with the private sector. Oh, and flexi-time. It'll be nice to go in at 10 some mornings and stay till 6 so there aren't any kids about, much easier. I wonder who will teach for the missing hour? Holidays whenever we want to take them. Cheap rates for us then. Hooray! Off to have a tea or coffee when she fancies one. Drift off to lunch when it's convenient. Make a few personal calls and surf the net if she's at a loose end.

And yet, I suspect that isn't what is envisaged. Of course, teachers and nurses might decide to take industrial action just like in the private sector. When insurance workers go on strike you'll probably not particularly care. It might be mildly inconvenient of them but really does it matter? Of course a striking teacher is purposely trying to ruin your child's education because they are a hard-hearted bunch, just like the nurses who are intent on making sure your family members die.

Of course, there is one bunch of workers in the Public sector who have lost out big time. It's MPs. When their pay comes up for discussion they are remarkably underpaid compared to the private sector. It's why their pay has to go up each year. But not to worry because they do look long and hard at their circumstances before they vote themselves a payrise. Which luckily has been agreed by the independent body who look at the MPs wages.

So, 24 hours ago teachers were told they have to become hard-line on literacy. Today they are told they are overpaid, not long ago their pensions were considered too high, which is strange because public sector pensions were set higher to make up for the lower wages that public sector workers get. (Some mistake here surely). And of course last month there was the discussion about what to do with all the teachers who aren't up to the job. Well I can promise you one thing. All the ones that are good are thinking of leaving because teaching isn't what it was and I suspect neither is nursing. You know those people who answer the phones in call centres and don't know what the hell is going on with anything because the computer doesn't tell them. Welcome to the next draft of teachers because that is the standard of worker the government are going to be attracting with their relentless attack on the profession.