Hey Brits - important petition
Okay, I know there's this idea that council workers are overpaid and underworked. I promise you, I'm not, and neither are my colleagues. Single Status job evaluation has hit a lot of us hard - job descriptions have been lost, union reps haven't been available during evaluation interviews, management have had vested interests in portraying junior jobs as less skilled and less responsible than they actually are. A lot of people are facing pay cuts and, of those who're 'staying the same', a lot have been regraded so that they can't get any more incremental progressions. In the event of the unions rejecting the pay deal, the council are threatening to sack people and then re-employ them on the new, poorer, terms. This is in a sector where our pay increases below the rate of inflation (in real terms, a constant pay cut - the cost of living rises much faster than our wages do), and far below the rate of people (chief execs, councillors and MPs) who actually get to vote on their own pay.
It was supposed to address equal pay issues, regrading people in manual, paraprofessional and traditionally-female jobs according to how hard they work instead of according to social expectations about those jobs. Yet the majority of losers have been women and people already in poorly-paid jobs, and since they've lost out, they're not entitled to the back pay you keep hearing about in the news. Where I work, we've had people in tears, people making themselves ill with stress, because it just feels like our hard work has been declared worthless, and because nobody understands what's going on or how to appeal against it.
Nobody joins the public sector because they expect high pay - though a living wage isn't too much to ask, I think. A lot of us do it because we honestly want to help people. In my case, it's because I think free and equal access to information and to skills-training is essential for a democratic and equal society. Because I think my own reading habit has done a lot for my English skills and my subsequent education, and I want that to be available to everybody else. And I think the public library service is the best way to achieve that right now. So please, sign this petition, asking for a fair and transparent approach to Single Status.
It was supposed to address equal pay issues, regrading people in manual, paraprofessional and traditionally-female jobs according to how hard they work instead of according to social expectations about those jobs. Yet the majority of losers have been women and people already in poorly-paid jobs, and since they've lost out, they're not entitled to the back pay you keep hearing about in the news. Where I work, we've had people in tears, people making themselves ill with stress, because it just feels like our hard work has been declared worthless, and because nobody understands what's going on or how to appeal against it.
Nobody joins the public sector because they expect high pay - though a living wage isn't too much to ask, I think. A lot of us do it because we honestly want to help people. In my case, it's because I think free and equal access to information and to skills-training is essential for a democratic and equal society. Because I think my own reading habit has done a lot for my English skills and my subsequent education, and I want that to be available to everybody else. And I think the public library service is the best way to achieve that right now. So please, sign this petition, asking for a fair and transparent approach to Single Status.