And no pay rises for state sector CEOs
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm by David FarrarThe Dom Post reports that not only will MPs probably not be getting a pay rise this year, neither will state sector CEOs.
It is no surprise, that expectations are that overall state sector pay increases will be modest, if at all. The PSA decided to visit another galaxy by exclaiming:
Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott warned if civil servants were denied pay increases, there could be an exodus from the sector.
As wages are higher in the state sector than the private sector, I somehow don’t think this exodus will be very large.
Related posts:
- Public Sector CEOs earning more than private CEOs
- The state sector
- A smaller public sector
- Public Sector Pay Rates
January 23rd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I thought that was the objective? Enhanced natural attrition
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Yeah they’re all like to leave their 10-3.30 jobs where they get 2 hour lunch breaks and no accounability to go where people expect them to show up and actually produce something for less money and more hours.
Ooooo scare us some more Brenda.
That ranks right up there with Cleavon Little holding a gun to his head and saying no body moves or the nigger gets it.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott warned if civil servants were denied pay increases, there could be an exodus from the sector.
I don’t see a problem here, I only see Karma.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Why stop with the CEO’s?
The entire public sector should be frozen.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 1:42 pm
An exodus?
Right… they’ll follow their “leadership” right up to the point where they find they can’t part the traffic on The Terrace to let them across, let alone rain fire and brimstone upon the global economy, then go back to reading the DomPost and scoffing sausage rolls.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
“Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott warned if civil servants were denied pay increases, there could be an exodus from the sector.”
I doubt the private sector will be giving its employees much of a rise, given the current economic conditions.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 1:58 pm
They are so out of touch really!
Let them go.
Not hard to find replacements.
They could go into business themselves. That would be a shock!!
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
“As wages are higher in the state sector than the private sector, I somehow don’t think this exodus will be very large.”
Is that for equivalent jobs, or just looking at blunt statistics? (The state sector doesn’t have many jobs at the level of supermarket checkout operator.)
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
We should really ignore PSA and other public sector employees complaints – they are the piñata of stupid and every time you whack them some new idiocy comes out.
Totally out of touch with the real world.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
With a bit of luck Brenda Pillott and her colleagues at the PSA will be first to sling their hooks!! They’re are a bit thick to realise that this is want everybody wants them to do – have an exodus.
Good luck finding a new job in the current economic climate, especially with their background in the public sector. Any real world employer understands that most of this lot are so used to being spoon fed they are unemployable outside of the public sector anyway.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Anyone else think this is going to make it more socially acceptable for private businesses to also freeze salaries? I think it’s a disturbing precedent
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Yes, for this statement Brenda Pilott falls into the ‘Man they are dumb” part of that scene.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
One key reason for the call to restrain public sector wages is so that the Govt will then have more money to save the jobs of those under threat of losing them entirely.
While it is the proper role of the PSA to argue for their members’ benefit at the expense of anyone else who gets it the way, true socialsim would require that public servants embrace lower pay in order to share the wealth with those who need it even more than they do.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 2:55 pm
“Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott warned if civil servants were denied pay increases, there could be an exodus from the sector.”
Usually depends, be an analyst for example in the public sector or work at Parliament and you will find that when you eventually go to the private sector you get paid more. The pay scales in the public sector are pretty much the same throughout the sector so an analyst pretty much gets paid same pay scale in every govt dept all the way up from senior analyst to team leader etc all way up to management.
In the public sector it is about climbing the pay scale, when you get to the top of one’s salary band you are then likely to be employable at a higher position elsewhere or more promotable as the public sector is an endless mobile treadmill from graduate level onwards…
You can’t get much more bureaucratic socialist than how the public sector organise their HR and salaries… The trick is to get onto contract rates as lots of public departments end up extending your contract…
I think this is good news for contractors as the knife gets put to the public sector purse, especially in terms of HR there will be holes that suddenly need to be filled by contractors because a lot of govt departments will discover that some of their cutbacks create more problems than they solve…
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 3:06 pm
> As wages are higher in the state sector than the private sector.
Care to point to the CEOs in the Public Sector on million dollar plus salaries?
Cheers.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
mattyrooo
How right you are. From painful experience where I have employed ex public service as new employees you can be very certain that anyone who says they have been employed in the public sector by default goes to the bottom of any new applicants. The exceptions are people who have only been employed for 6-12 months, and hopefully have not been poisoned by working in the public service. They will have to give a very convincing interview to have any hope of getting a job offer.
My wife has always scoffed at my views on public sector staff, and then in 2007 took a job at the Ministry of Justice. She left after 6 months as she was shocked by the lack of work ethic. She now totally agrees with my views in public sector staff.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Anecdotally, I am hearing of quite a few people being employed in the core public service on fixed term contracts. These pay less than contractors (daily/hourly rate) but more than permanent staff. But they can be let go simply, quickly and of course more cheaply than paying redundancy to permanent staff. Late last year (before the election) one of these FT contractors told me that several of them in the Ministry of Social Development were being offered permanent jobs. Sounded to me like they were being ‘looked after’ by the MSD so they got paid redundancy if let go (pending a likely change of government).
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
A bit wordy but a Tui ad winner in my opinion.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
What on earth does ‘true socialism’ have to do with anything?
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Care to point to the CEOs in the Public Sector on million dollar plus salaries?
Care to point out how many Public Sector CEO’s are accountable to shareholders and are required to increase company value in a competitive market?
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Well said Ruth: A CEO in Government circles seems to be a misnomer given that a CEO is generally responsible for the success or failure of the business, providing strategic direction…to be accountable…still I suppose it sits more comfortably than accurately described; an appointed hack.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
The country would be a lot better off if the bloated public beauracracy was slashed in half and the redundant public servants paid the dole rather than their exorbadent salaries. Afterall, both public servants and beneficiaries are both sucking off the public tit. A lot of the public servants are probably about as much use to the country as beneficiaries anyway. In fact, probably worse. At least beneficiaries don’t waste truckloads of public money with stupid decisions that screw up peoples lives.
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Ruth:
I am so stealing that!!
*mental note to self: don’t use on Kiwiblog and try to claim originality*
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 5:55 pm
So Brenda will be part of the exodus?
Vote:OMG how many will she take with her? all of them?
How will we survive with less Civil Servants?
Quite well I think.
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Where will they go? To the lower paid, riskier private sector where there are no jobs anyway.
What planet is Pilott from? Is it green like ours?
Vote:January 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 pm
There are no yardsticks for performance in the public sector.
Vote:January 24th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I am worried about this, remember the late 80′s. Lots of cardigan & roman sandel wearing sloths were removed from Wellington then reappeared (Star Trekishly) at local government level.
Vote:Yea sort it out but FFS sort the whole effing system – shifting taxes to my rates will still piss me off.
January 24th, 2009 at 9:35 am
The only game in town is the pension benefits of the Sir Humphreys and Legions in support.
Tax, Rates, Fines, ETS, GST, it all to pay for their higher than should be salaries. And the Gold plated pensions.
Everything is pointed to that end game.
Vote:January 24th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Before you get too carried away with public sector employees..
I have spent equal time in both sectors and now own my own company. In general one works much harder in the private sector and much more so when you own your own company BUT in the case of the University I spent 13 years at, there was a hard core 10% who did the work to cover the other 90% of no hopers.
The problem is those supermen and superwomen get lumped in with the rest of the ne’er-do-wells. If you can identify those ones who are good they will be the best employees you will ever have. Being on the inside I have been able to ‘rescue’ a few I knew and we have a kick arse team on the ‘outside’.
It used to really piss me off when potential employers would not consider me for a role because of ignorance like this, they would tell me as much. I have quietly exacted mild revenge on a few of them by excluding them from contracts with our company.
Beware who you shit on for they may one day return the favour.
FWIW
Vote:January 24th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Oh Brenda
Promises!, promises!,promises!.
Vote:January 24th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
btw..wtf happened to the pledges/promises from key/english..
..to ‘close the gaps’..
..with aussie wage-earners..?
eh..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2009/comment-whoarwhat-is-that-sayingis-itthe-more-things-changethe-more-they-remain-the-same/
phil(whoar.co.nz)
Vote:January 24th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Ever heard of not scaring the horses, phil?
If Key/English had talked about the reality of what was coming up during the election, the reef-fish would have had a heart attack.
Personally if it were me, I would have been a bit more open about it since the reef-fish aren’t idiots, they’re just politically ignorant. I would have personally trusted them a bit more with the information and not bothered to pretend everything in the next three years was going to be the same as the last three.
But that’s why they did it, and promises like the ones you refer to are obviously much less important in the context of the current reality so that’s why they’ve stopped talking about those.
Vote:January 24th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
She just doesnt get it, does she. Key campaigned on cutting fat out of the Public Sector. A wage freeze on senior Public Servants is unrelated but this woman saying it will cause people to leave the sector will be exactly what Key wants. Whats the down side – there isnt one. She’s obviously not a thinking person to make a comment like that, so will be no great loss if she’s one of the first to walk. Labour used to sit there and accept the endless payrises from Higher Salaries Commission saying we have no control over that. Not JK. If it sets a precedent it can only be a good one.
Vote:January 24th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
““Public Service Association national secretary Brenda Pilott warned if civil servants were denied pay increases, there could be an exodus from the sector.”
Call her bluff mr PM.
she’s not going anywhere and no one else is. what a hollow crappy pathetic airhead threat to make in a recession of this significance. Someone put a mic to her mouth so she can rant on and get told to shut her mouth by the civil service.
They’re the one group along with consultants that really need to go. They’re just a drain on the country.
They suck up tax payer funds then point the finger at the manufactued unemployed. Traitors one and all and take a lot to convince me otherwise. Definitely be the first to get the chop when the revolution comes. (not talking bout a socialist one either, they can piss off too.)
Vote:January 24th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
“A bit wordy but a Tui ad winner in my opinion.”
True Socialism spreads the wealth; yeah right.
Hows that Brian?
Vote: