Semi-State Paycuts?

mossyc123

Just a quick question. Can anyone tell me if the workforce of any of the following have suffered across the board pay cuts over the last 2/3 years?

-CIE (Dublin Bus, Irish Rail, Bus Eireann, etc)
-ESB
-Bord Gais
-RTE/TG4
-An Post
-Bord na Mona

Have these and other state-sponsored entities suffered pay reductions?
If not, why not?

mlmcelligott

we need the commercial semi states (css) i.e. the ones that make money and give dividends back to the government each year who dont cost the tax payer a cent. The government will probably get those css to reduce their costs by improving efficiencies and reducing overheads.

All other semi-states that receive government funding are up for cuts.

Atlantic Dawn

I think those that are profitable and not monopolies should have their pay left as is, those which are unprofitable should be cut. There needs to be an incentive to make profits unlike the civil service situation where it doesn't matter whether the IMF are in or the Celtic Tiger is in full swing they still get their full wage.

sollar

They should be cut especially if they are in a monopoly position. Most of them should just be sold off anyway. Keep the ESB grid but bring it in as a full state org and subjct their staff to the same cuts as the rest of the PS/CS.

mlmcelligott

I dont get where you are going with this monopoly thing. We are a small country with a small population. I think monopolies are a good thing here in some respects.

Telecom eireann had a monopoly over the telecoms network and had massive plans to expand and update the infrastructure all around the country, had they done that alot more people would have access to broadband and our phone and internet bills would be much less. All because the government made the mistake of floating it on the stock market which was a failure and now its changed hands several times in the last 10 years with each new owner bleeding it more and more.

ESB had a monopoly over all electricity generation in the country then the government (granted it was an EU directive) decided to break the monopoly, increase electricity unit costs, and encourage competition to enter the market. Now the average domestic unit cost has doubled since ESB was regulated to allow others suppliers to undercut them.

Coillte and Bord na Mona are the monopoly on forestry and peat production. Together they own about 10% of the area of Ireland. Would you like that to be privatized and 10% of our country sold off?

If the companies above had not been monopolies and semi-states, with the addition of Bord Gais, then a hell of alot less than 1.9billion euros would have been invested in the Irish economy and 320 million wouldnt have been given to the government.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/kfmhgbmhqley/rss2/

As regarding pay cuts - If the company is making money as well as lowering its costs for its services to the public than their pay should be left alone. Maybe incur a pay freeze but dont cut it. Cutting their pay will only make their employees to save more and less money is spent in the economy only making the problem worse.
rant over.

super_furry

In fairness to RTE, their staff - well the normal non 'celebs' were among the first to agree to an initial pay freeze and then a voluntary cut across the board.

The Muppet

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

I think those that are profitable and not monopolies should have their pay left as is, those which are unprofitable should be cut. There needs to be an incentive to make profits unlike the civil service situation where it doesn't matter whether the IMF are in or the Celtic Tiger is in full swing they still get their full wage.

Perhaps the Gardai should look for a €100 payment before responding to any emergency call, and the HSE look for payment of the cost of treatment before delivering any treatment. Teachers could look for a payment before teaching our kids, etc etc. That would make the public sector profitable and there would be no need to cut their wage further. Perhaps the IMF should explore this avenure too.

HellFireClub

Traindrivers in our cosy semi state Irish Rail get paid around 70K a year, ESB workers, another crowd on celebrity salaries, are paid on average of 90K a year. And we wonder why we cannot improve our competitiveness and get our unit costs down when we have to carry this kind of absolute nonsense...

Theboinkmaster

super_furry wrote: »

In fairness to RTE, their staff - well the normal non 'celebs' were among the first to agree to an initial pay freeze and then a voluntary cut across the board.

Yeah RTE had pay cuts in line with average private sector cuts, fair enough IMO

The Muppet

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

Yeah RTE had pay cuts in line with average private sector cuts, fair enough IMO

What are these average private sector cuts you speak of?

Are they documented anywhere, the last I heard of them indicated they never really happened on any significant scale.

Does your reasoning apply to further pay cuts in the public sector?

Absurdum

HellFireClub wrote: »

Traindrivers in our cosy semi state Irish Rail get paid around 70K a year,

no they don't

HellFireClub wrote: »

ESB workers, another crowd on celebrity salaries, are paid on average of 90K a year.

no they don't

snickerpuss

HellFireClub wrote: »

Traindrivers in our cosy semi state Irish Rail get paid around 70K a year, ESB workers, another crowd on celebrity salaries, are paid on average of 90K a year. And we wonder why we cannot improve our competitiveness and get our unit costs down when we have to carry this kind of absolute nonsense...

Your figures are absolute nonsense! Where are you even getting that from? I know a train driver and even the top of the scale is about half that! Complete rubbish like this doesn't help.