Public sector is the biggest rip-off

THE figures from the Central Statistics Office showing that public sector workers are paid up to 40% more than those in the private sector must have made the blood of every employee in the latter category soar past boiling point.

The infamous €2 billion benchmarking increases awarded to the public sector a few years ago were based on an unpublished report that they were poorly paid. It was not published in order to conceal the fact that benchmarking was designed to rip off the hard-pressed private sector. No wonder one trade unionist called it “an ATM machine”.

The biggest rip-off in this country is the over-paid, over-staffed, under-worked and inefficient public sector whose trade unions continually ask for more pay for less work.

The recent strike by train drivers was a good example. They had the barefaced cheek to demand a pay rise for driving a faster train which would have reduced their working hours.

Public sector workers have jobs guaranteed for life. They can’t be fired, outsourced or made redundant no matter how incompetent they may be. An example is the recent ruling against outsourcing core civil service functions which prevented the scandalously long waiting list for driving tests from being tackled by the private sector.

Private sector workers, on the other hand, have no security. Companies can be closed, relocated and taken over without prior notice, consultation or compensation. We are at constant risk of being made redundant, outsourced and sacked. When we do get pay rises, we are lucky if they are in line with inflation. We don’t get time-in-service increments. And many of us are expected to work extra hours without overtime. Every public sector worker is guaranteed a defined benefit, index-linked pension paid for by our taxes.

In contrast, many private sector workers have no pension, and those who do typically have a defined contribution pension with no guarantee of a minimum retirement income.

If companies bring in new technologies and change our work practices, there is none of this trade union nonsense about consultation and compensation. The consultation is an email and — maybe — a company meeting.

The compensation is you keep your job. Do we complain about this? No.

The reason is that most private sector workers know and accept that this flexibility is necessary for the creation of a wealthy society with low employment and high growth.

Most of the success stories in the Celtic Tiger are from the private sector, built on the back of the sacrifices made by private sector workers. Most of the failures are largely thanks to the indolent, work-to-rule public sector workers with their inflexible, restrictive work practices.

We have a self-confessed socialist leading the government, and it shows. The public sector unions treat him like a footstool. They are robbing this country blind and I, for one, am sick of it. What this country needs is a right-wing government. We need our own Margaret Thatcher to give the public sector unions a good kicking. Any political party offering to do that will get my vote.

Jason FitzHarris

Rivervalley

Swords

Co Dublin.