Public sector pay comment distorts reality and tries to cause division

YOUR editorial (September 22) totally distorts the reality of public service pay and seeks to divide public and private sector workers. It is so full of inaccuracies one can only wonder if the real objective is to reduce the pay and conditions of all workers.

Any comparison of the pay of public sector workers with the private sector is meaningless unless job-by-job comparisons are made.

The ERSI has done no such thing. In fact the only independent review which compared public service and private sector jobs on a like-by-like basis was the 2008 benchmarking review which found “there is little or no public service premium, if comparison is made with private sector employees in large establishments” which, the report notes, “accounts for a significant majority of public sector workers”.