Page 1 of Civil servants - a political football once again <<sigh>>

Although I`d had advance warning of the Chancellor`s announcement today, it still came as a real kick in the teeth to learn that another 64,000 civil servants (to go with the 40,000 announced at the Budget speech) are to be axed over the next four years.

Sadly, the image they are creating is completely incorrect - the vast majority of civil servants are not, as the Government-loving media conveniently portrays, a bunch of "Sir Humphreys" - they are people like yourselves who do a damned hard job doing vital front and back office functions, often enforcing or creating sometimes very unpopular Govt policies, as well as (and this is a very, very smal sample) saving lives (Maritime Coastguard Agency), solving crimes (Forensic Science), providing access to justice (Employment Tribunals/Dept of Constitutional Affairs), paying benefits (Dept of Work and Pensions) and plenty more besides.

The Civil Service became a political football prior to the Budget, with the Tories stating they`d get rid of 30,000 and Labour then trumping them (and stealing their thunder) and raising them 10,000. The announcement of the 40,000 redundancies at the Budget speech was outrageous - Ministers patting themselves on the back when the Government had not even mentioned their intention to the trade unions (imagine if your employer went on the telly and announced you were being made redundant, and then multiply that by 40,000).

I`d be interested in hearing what you think of the Civil Service - is it the case that you believe the media hype that we`re all lazy, time-wasters, tied up in our own bureaucracy or victims of a cruel and heartless political machine, where parties score points off each other by seeing who can get rid of the most of these hard-working and generally very devoted employees ?

Discuss... :D



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Clayts, Moderator, DVD Reviewer
UK webmaster for Area 450 the independent Sampo/Maxent DVD site

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Reaction from civil service trade union PCS - my union :

Quote:
Fear of Devastation of Public Services in Face of Massive Job Loses

12 Jul 2004

PCS, the largest civil service trade union said it could not rule out industrial action after the Chancellor announced he intends to slash over 100,000 jobs, devastating Britain`s public services.


Commenting, PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said "Job cuts on this scale spell carnage for public services. When this government was elected they imposed the windfall tax to pay for initiatives like the New Deal, now they are using their own workforce to pay for their policies. How are the government going to deliver their promises on tax credits, winter fuel payments, immigration and closing tax loopholes in the face of such devastating cuts?


"The Chancellor is creating a false divide between the front line and back line. PCS members on the frontline know they cannot do their job without the vital support from the back office. From customs officials relying on intelligence gathering to those giving benefits advice needing accurate records, a properly resourced back office link is essential. The government seem more content on cutting numbers, rather than focussing on public services.


"The Chancellor`s announcement on clamping down on sick absence comes as a double whammy. For the government to imply its own workforce are shirking is just another a slap in the face. In light of such attacks on hardworking civil servants we will be consulting our members, taking our case to the wider trade union movement and to the users of public services in order to mount the most vigorous defence of our memnbers` jobs. We cannot rule out industrial action in the face of such a serious attack."



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Clayts, Moderator, DVD Reviewer
UK webmaster for Area 450 the independent Sampo/Maxent DVD site

Please sign up here to get the FX289 channel on NTL/Telewest for old repeats of NYPD Blue and X Files - thanks !

This item was edited on Tuesday, 13th July 2004, 01:03

hmmm.. well clayts.. without wanting to totally offend you... and as a former civil servant and former union rep i do have sympathy for anyone losing their job under any circumstances.. but the civil service is in need of the change.. Newcastle has a huge civil service workforce.. at it`s longbenton site.. and its populated by party monkeys and people with no idea what they want to do in life...

I spent 3 years employed there and could feel the life being sucked out of me... too much red tape.. to many pointless procedures and too much staff... and in a job that was once held in high regard.. the lowering of standards has meant that the workforce is only one step away from those requiring its service the most...

harsh?.. maybe.. but i`m sure you`ll be able to discuss it on an extended 3 hour flexi credit this friday while you all sup 6 pints each before returning to work for 30 mins. to organise this weeks trip to the races

Quote:
too much red tape.. to many pointless procedures and too much staff...


Sounds like the council I work for!

I`m a civil servant in London and to be honest, where I work its probably fair to say that there are too many people and not enough work. However, the majority of people I work with do work hard and do an important job in contributing to the running of the country.

Rich

Where to start...........

I worked as a civil servantfor two year, for the lifespan of a Community Wardens Project in the west midlands.

In my experience civil servants fall into two convenient pidgeon holes. The Sir Humphreys Clayts mentioned and `Guardian reading interfering Liberal hippy outreach workers`. Who advise 12 year olds to have abortions. Both of which are easy media stereotypes. And as such the great unwashed couldnt care less if they lose their jobs. If the private sector made such an anouncement there would be an outcry.

However, one of the reasons i left the civil service was the utter lunacy that was often displayed in their staffing and recruitment policies. When the funding for my post came to an end I applied for a job in the european unit. However i was beaten to the job by a recent immigrant. I dont go in for immigrant bashing and i dont hold the fact that she got the job against her in the slightest, but th woman couldnt actually speak english. So they had to hire a translator to help her do her job. So there were, in effect, two people doing one persons job.

And it didnt stop there. I would estimate that our building was 20% overstaffed and i would imagine that this ran accross the board.

Now you have to stop and think `Why are they overstaffed and so inneffective?`. Its all very well making media friendly `We slash so we wont have to take your cash` announcements, but it is the gross mismanagement of the civil service by our `government` that has led to this situation in the first place.

And by slashing 100,000 jobs they are setting themselves up for a big fall as, in my opinion, they will not have enough staff left to quickly and effectively implement policy, which will create enormous problems in the long run. And if there is one thing our government is good at its media friendly knee jerk policy decisions (as seen by people turning in antique ship cannons (i s*** you not) after the pathetic and hastily written Sun pleasing legislation dished out after the Dunblane massacre).

But i suppose `We are going to have a shake up in policy and weed out a few overstaffed areas` isnt as effective a soundbite...................

Civil service? Im well rid.

100,000 is not enough!
They should fire at least half of all civil service and council workers!
Though I`d aim for two thirds!

Scrap the Welfare state too!

Less civil servants = Less Red tape

I work in the NHS as a manager

HAlf the time I want to get a new job because as said else where I can feel the red tape and bulls*** sucking the life out of me. The rest of the time I am happy to get paid for such an easy gig

i work my balls off, get sh*t pay and this is what thanks we get.

I`m one of the people who work at newcastle, not the longbenton site but the benton site. Where I work has now become understaffed (many have left to go to the inland revenue, same job but earning £2000 per year more), many others are looking for new jobs at anywhere they can get, we are bringing more work into the building and we can`t get extra people due to the recruitment ban. Our telephony agents are treat like dirt, sometimes by the customers but mainly by the upper management. They work themselves into the ground and get told they need to do better, never being told how well they are doing. At the same time, they keep going out of their way to help the customers because they really do want to help people, they just get so sick of the way management handles everything these days.

In my job (i`m an AA) i`m low paid (made more money as a security guard), do my own work, about 3 extra duties that no one ever asks if I have time to do and half the time have to also do half the work of a higher grade since they cut our team down and the one remaining AO we have is now so overworked that she`d need to work all 7 days just to keep things managable. I get paid no extra for doing anything extra, it`s not part of my job and I really don`t have the time to do it but we`re just expected to get on with it and look happy. I don`t complain about it because the management don`t care about us low people enough to even listen and everyone else in the building is in the same position as me so i`m no worse off than anyone else. Morale in our place is rock bottom, only thing is it`s starting to cost a fortune for all the leaving do collections as they are now becoming at least weekly.

To the person that said sack even more and get rid of benefits. Well we deal with pensions too, so when you`ve paid all your life into your state pension (your NI contributions) you might be a bit upset when you don`t get it, but that`s just because the people that work it out and pay it to you are now either unemployed or so overworked that you`re broke and starving before they even get round to looking at your claim never mind actually doing it.