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September 18, 2008
INFLATION: 4.7% - AND RISING...
Inflation is now running at 4.7%. No increments, no pay settlement - wages being cut in real terms. But performance is buoyant in probation... so nothing to worry about then…
How we were told that public probation needed a good dose of market forces/disciplines to raise performance. How private was superior to public. The notion of the superiority of the private sector is taking a bit of a battering. In education the privatisation of examination marking has been a shambles; and all those private companies losing confidential data, some containing details of probation staff.
We used to hear from the masters of the universe in probation how the markets were part of the 'real world', the future, and that trying to hold on to a public probation service was idealistic and naive. Contestability, the private sector, sweating the assets, suppressing wages, fear is the key, cry TUPE – the way forward!
Now we see those financial giants of the marketplace pleading with governments to bail them out of the disastrous financial messes they have got themselves - and every taxpayer - into - through their unbridled greed. Their yachts will sail on as taxpayers' see their standard of living sink further. Suddenly the banks are happy to be nationalised, become part of the public sector. As someone wisely observed, the banks want to privatise all their profits and socialise all their risks.
Meanwhile, in probation, the pay situation for many is a disgrace and all our employers do is seek to erode and erode terms and conditions of employment. Things may get better through action but they won't get better through magic or trusting in the decency of your paymasters.
Posted by Hampshire at September 18, 2008 08:29 PM