Blood beginning to boil now. As a former council employee I know that the pay scales are superb compared to anything else you can get locally, plus there are loads of benefits that most private sector employees can't have such as an amazing flexi-time scheme, child care benefits (scheme that takes child care from your wage so you pay less over all somehow), the best pension you will ever see, up to 33 days holiday a year plus bank holidays, paternity/maternity leave of 3 and 9 months respectively etc etc.

They should stop moaning and get on with the endless bureaucracy that they have put in place before people realise that they have deliberately made everything needlessly complicated to make sure people have something to do most (but not all) of the time.

I've seen first hand how our council tax money is wasted so things like this really annoy me.

The pay rises the Government has imposed on council workers, police officers, nurses, civil servants etc are based on its dishonest Consumer Price Index (CPI), which underestimates real inflation by excluding housing and other unavoidable costs. However, even using the CPI, which has risen to 3.0% and is predicted to rise to 3.7%, a 2.45% pay rise is effectively a pay cut. The pay cut is greater if the more realistic Retail Price Index (RPI), on which state pension and benefits increases are based, is used. This currently stands at 4.2%.

Forget the headline grabbing stories of highly paid senior council officers who 'forward thinker' must have worked with. The vast majority of council workers are relatively low paid and many, particularly women, are part-timers. For these workers, hit by soaring food and fuel costs, even the RPI doesn't adequately reflect their personal inflation. Low paid private sector workers receiving a pay rise of no more than the 4.5% average for the sector will also be sufferng an effective pay cut, but why should council workers suffer even more?

I doubt if the workers being robbed blind by Blackburn Council to the tune of £thousands on the basis of a contentious and mistrusted job evaluation exercise are bothered too much about this years pay rise. I cannot understand why Unison is (rightly) campaigning against an effective pay cut of a few percent but seems to care little about workers at the Council suffering these life-altering pay cuts. Neither can I understand why the Local Government unions continue making donations to the Labour Party whose Government is cutting their members' pay.

The CPI may not be the best indicator, but everyone is feeling the pinch not just council workers. The company I work for is giving 2.4% this year and never gives as much as the council rises are. There are other places where there will be no rises at all.

It is easy for council employees to become complacent when they have got used to the cushiness. The old argument that pay doesn't compare well with private sector is only valid for the high level "PO" scale council employees, when it comes to scales 1-6 and SO's, they are well in front of comparable private sector jobs.

I, as a current local council worker can verify that Forward Thinker has got his facts very, very wrong! Scales 1-6 are no where near private sector pay scales. I worked in the private sector for over 15 years and comparable jobs are much better paid.

My decision to work for local government wasnt founded on the need to line my pockets (I took a drop in salary to work with disabled adults), which is sadly the attitude of most people today, but to provide a great service to the local people. Make a contribution based on my knowledge and skills to benefit others. I have no interest in chasing a high salary! Yes there are flexible working patterns and maternity/paternity leave, but these will be the norm for every worker soon.

You also hit out at the pension scheme? I suppose you wont claim yours then when you reach retirement age seeing as you will probably have one as a former council employee?

All we ask, is that we are treated with respect and offered a fair increase. Over the past few years any increase that has been agreed has taken months and months to reach us and has always been way below the CPI. Leaving most i know feeling as though the government is using the situation to make money on OUR money!!

On a lighter note, did you FORWARD THINKER happen to get leave the council on a sour note because you certainly picking on the people who least deserve it?

Forward Thinker as a former council employee you should be well aware that council employees also pay council tax - the "I pay your wages" moan is very old hat and inaccurate.
I think d.d. has got a point about your choice to leave the "cushy" sector - if it is so good surely you'd still be there?
That aside - every worker in this country has the right to pursue a fair claim for a pay rise, just because your company is only paying 2.4% and you are content with a pay cut does not mean that thousands of others across the country should sit back whilst this government forces working people closer to the bread line. We are all being financially crippled by rising costs - fuel, food, utility bills and many council staff have to face the additional burden of pay cuts through so-called equal pay reviews.
I think you are being totally arrogant to imply that council staff are complacent - I think you are talking about the days when there was a job for life and people could be off sick for weeks on end without question - sorry to break this to you but this is the 21st Century and life as a council employee is a lot different these days,
ask your friends who still work there - oops, that's not likely is it?

I wouldn't normally feel the need to justify my reason for leaving, but in this case it makes my argument more credible. I left just over 12 months ago because the job I did which previously occupied someone fully could be done in half the time by someone with a good work ethic. I tried to take on more responsibilities to fill my week up but it turned out that almost everyone in my dept (a big one!) was stretching their work out to fill a week, so they were reluctant to pass any of it on. I stuck with it for as long as I could but clock watching is not something I enjoy and the boredom finally did me in.

I was not "hitting out" at the pension scheme, it is fantastic. It is a shame that everyone can't have similar schemes and seeing as they can't, maybe council employees should appreciate what they have.

My partner is presently a low level manager at a local authority (not Bury) and tells me similar tales. I have a friend who started working at Bury a couple of years ago who can't believe his luck. He used to work for a large, well known local firm regularly doing 50 hour weeks but now he gets paid significantly more and works significantly less!

My main gripe is with the general work ethic that is prevalent in comparison with the rewards available. If My present job for Bury MBC is graded at PO1 but I earn about 10% less than that would be, but I like to be kept busy so the days don't drag. My present work load is very challenging and due to the nature of the work it is easy for me to compare to the workload of the position at the council where they had 3 people doing what I now do.

Saying that every employer should offer the same is a lovely idea, but it is obvious that smaller businesses cannot do this as their margins cannot accomodate such expenditure. Margins mean nothing to Local Authorities, their main concern is making sure they spend every penny of their allocated annual budget before the tax year ends to ensure they don't get a reduced allocation the next year. I've seen contractors paid in full for jobs before even lifting a finger in order for the money to be taken from a particular years budget.

You couldn't run a private business in the same way.

Well said forward thinker. It has always been the same with our servants in the local authority. One working & three watching.
As for them paying council tax, that is out of the money WE pay them.

Well said forward thinker. It has always been the same with our servants in the local authority. One working & three watching.
As for them paying council tax, that is out of the money WE pay them.

Lecky, Titch and Forward Thinker - you are all unbelievable assuming that everyone who works for a local authority has some cushy desk job. Its not the council employees who are spending working time looking at the internet and typing posts FT!
Would you say the same to the family of the council employee who was stabbed to death in the course of his job earlier this month? Have some respect and try directing your venom at the real villains of this story - central government.