State pay hiked after 'pensions plundered'

douglashyde

Source: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-pay-hiked-after-pensions-plundered-2647527.html

The Labour Courts have ruled that Bord Na Mona increase staff pay to bring it in line with other semi-state energy companies.

Having worked with the ESB, this does not surprise me. While there are many talented people working in these companies that deserve every penny they earn. There are far more people with high pay purely based on years of service; nothing else.

The typical ‘go to’ argument for semi-state unions has been "but we are profitable". This doesn't hold ground; The people of Ireland own a stake and receive dividend from semi-states, so an increase in expenditure is money out of our pocket. Also, you are charging Irish customers, so higher expenditure ultimately means higher prices.

The Government needs to take a tough stance on the public sector unions and start matching pay to respective private sector positions and not just based on years of service. This needs to be done, if not out of fairness, then for the sake of saving this country.

While the Government might have difficultly touching semi-states, it needs to act sooner rather than later in dealing with Ireland's civil service and public sector pay bill.

This topic has been discussed to death for a reason. I believe there is real disgust for the wastefulness and fat that is attached to Irish Public Sector, Civil Service and Semi-State bodies. Let them be privatised, then they will learn the true meaning of cost efficiency.

sollar

But the government can't touch the semi states in the same way that they touch private sector pensions (for some reason)??

douglashyde

sollar wrote: »

But the government can't touch the semi states in the same way that they touch private sector pensions (for some reason)??

That's true. However they are shareholders and should exercise their rights as such. At the very least they need to be seen to condemning the likes of this behaviour.

Idbatterim

if the other semi states got it, they should too afaic, ofcourse its a joke, but either give it to them or reverse the pay increase other semi state employees got! Fair, it has to be one of the most used, yet most laughable terms!

bamboozle

one things for sure, if staff in a semi state company had their pay reduced you certainly wouldnt see this reflected in other semi states.

20Cent

That headline demonstrates what utter rubbish and propaganda the Sunday Independent peddles. Bord Na Mona have nothing to do with the public sector pay bill. A 3.5% pay increase was awarded by the Labour Court to a public limited company. Its like google gave some people a pay rise and the headline was "State Pay hiked".

Diarmuid

20Cent wrote: »

Its like google gave some people a pay rise and the headline was "State Pay hiked".

Except Google isn't getting a subsidy from the state funded by the taxpayer

sarumite

20Cent wrote: »

That headline demonstrates what utter rubbish and propaganda the Sunday Independent peddles. Bord Na Mona have nothing to do with the public sector pay bill. A 3.5% pay increase was awarded by the Labour Court to a public limited company. Its like google gave some people a pay rise and the headline was "State Pay hiked".

You start so well and yet ended on a falshood. I agree up to your last line, where you decided to run for home base when you should have stayed at third. Unless the Irish taxpayer is a stake holder in Google (which it is not), then your last sentence is nonsense.

20Cent

Diarmuid wrote: »

Except Google isn't getting a subsidy from the state funded by the taxpayer

Google get plenty of subsidies also.
Board Na Mona paid 30 million to the state in the last 4 years.
How much have google?

sarumite

20Cent wrote: »

Google get plenty of subsidies also.
Board Na Mona paid 30 million to the state in the last 4 years.
How much have google?

The state doesn't have any ownership of Google, it didn't take an act of the Irish parliment to create google and the labour courts recommendations were based on government involvement with BNM. Google is an irrelevant deflection.

BornToKill

sarumite wrote: »

The state doesn't have any ownership of Google, it didn't take an act of the Irish parliment to create google and the labour courts recommendations were based on government involvement with BNM. Google is an irrelevant deflection.

So what can we expect now for Bank of Ireland? The State owns 36% and the company was established by an act of parliament.

sarumite

BornToKill wrote: »

So what can we expect now for Bank of Ireland? The State owns 36% and the company was established by an act of parliament.

Don't know, don't care. That question is irrelevant unless we are discussing a labour court ruling with respect to BOI. This thread is about BNM. While I agree with the first part of 20cent's initial post, google has no bearing on the subject.

BornToKill

The original post has already fused the whole of the 'Irish Public Sector, Civil Service and Semi-State bodies' into an issue relating to pay at Bord Na Móna. On any reasonable application, very little of what has been written here has much to do with Bord na Móna. Why not add Google, or perhaps more appropriately BOI, AIB, EBS and INBS to the mix? Might as well.

sarumite

BornToKill wrote: »

The original post has already fused the whole of the 'Irish Public Sector, Civil Service and Semi-State bodies' into an issue relating to pay at Bord Na Móna. On any reasonable application, very little of what has been written here has much to do with Bord na Móna. Why not add Google, or perhaps more appropriately BOI, AIB, EBS and INBS to the mix? Might as well.

Why not add Sesame street or the A-team into it as well.

BornToKill

Might as well. They have nothing to do with Bord na Móna either.

Count Dooku

20Cent wrote: »

Google get plenty of subsidies also.
Board Na Mona paid 30 million to the state in the last 4 years.
How much have google?

Only 6 of the 15 paid a dividend to the state totalling €82m. These were ESB, Bord Gais, Bord na Mona, the DAA, Dublin Port and the ESB. Bord na Mona was paid more in subsidies from the state than it paid back in dividends.

www.finegael.org/upload/Semi-StateSurvey07_10%5B1%5D.doc