I’m naturally right leaning and anti-strikes, and I accept it will achieve nothing other than to register a protest, but I will be striking on Thursday.
I’ve 11 years service in the civil service, so didn’t have the gold plated early retirement deals that many of my colleagues have lost. Always paid private sector levels of pension contributions, so don’t start that on me, and they have been going up out of my frozen salary the last few years as well.
I’m on the front line of the botched welfare reforms that were started to try and repair the damage done by the botched welfare reforms of the last bunch of incompetents. We have delivered our part with diminishing staff and budgets. And I’ve done it on less than the average wage, with no pay rise for 4-5 years now, when the cost of living has gone up 15-20% (?) in that time.
Just had enough of doing “their” bidding, and getting nothing back in return. I need a pay rise, I believe I’ve earned it, just as most people in work in this country deserve one. I want to register my own protest, and a protest for all the AOs and AAs lower down the pay system than me who have it even tougher.
They are going to struggle to keep this so-called recovery going if the 1 in 6 of the working population who are in the public sector get no payrise again this year.