One of the sections at the PCS conference covered ‘International Issues’, which gave us the opportunity to hear guest speakers from a different part of the world. Fathi Naser and Hana Joma, representatives from the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) gave us an insight into what it is like to be a Trade [...]
Archive for the tag 'Trade Union'
Filed under This & That
PCS Annual Delegates Conference
On Wednesday morning national president Janice Godrich opened the 2009 annual delegates conference. She started by reminding delegates that we were meeting against the background of the worst economic crisis in living memory and that 11 million adults are now living below the breadline. She went on to say how this was affecting people [...]
Comments Off CherryPie on May 26th 2009
Filed under Anecdotes
MoD Group Conference
I spent most of last week in the Brighton Centre. They were long days lasting from 9 in the morning until 5.30 in the evening, with only an hour for lunch. At the main conference you don’t even get a few minutes break for a cup of tea in the morning. Most conference sessions [...]
13 Comments CherryPie on May 25th 2009
Myth 4: privatisation
The myths
Privatisation is efficient and cost effective and the private sector provides better quality than the public sector.
The private sector is more responsive to service users
The private sector costs less than the public sector to deliver services
The government needs to privatise public services to save money as they can’t afford to pay for [...]
10 Comments CherryPie on May 12th 2009
Myth 3: civil and public servants are secure in their jobs
The myth
There is a misconception that civil and public servants are immune from the recession and have safe and cushy jobs.
The facts
The picture across the civil service has been one of job cuts resulting in a deterioration of services since the Gershon review in 2004. [...]
6 Comments CherryPie on May 11th 2009
Myth 2: civil service pensions are ‘gold plated’
The myth
Parts of the media have pushed the idea of an ‘apartheid’ between public sector pensions and private sector pensions has grown with the public sector enjoying generous pensions which are gold plated. Public sector pensions need to be reformed as a result, it is claimed.
The facts
Pensions in [...]
8 Comments CherryPie on May 7th 2009
This is the first of a series of 4 articles that highlight some of the myths that the media and politicians spread about civil and public services. The information was originally published on the PCS website and I thought they would benefit from a wider airing:
Public spending growth will be cut from 1.1% next [...]
12 Comments CherryPie on May 6th 2009
