Barry O'Leary , chief executive of the IDA ( yes another quango ) , recently commented , quite rightly in my opinion , that now in the circumstances of the Irish economy , we should 'bench mark ' our wages and salaries to international levels . In other words we should stop over- paying ourselves in order to remain competitive in international markets .
Every reasonable person will agree with this .
Its just a pity that the same reasonable attitude did not apply when we allowed our senior civil servants to 'benchmark' themselves against some of the highest paid people in the private sector at a time when , all agreed , Ireland was on the crest of an economic boom .
The boom has now ebbed . The salaries and bonuses in the private sector (and , granted ,some of these salaries and bonuses were OBSCENE in any context ) will recede , some companies may even ' go to the wall ' but will the public sector ( top level ) accept a freeze or a pay cut ? Watch this space .
Of course , already , the lower paid in the public sector will be pushed forward to be 'gun fodder ' in the front line ...usually young nurses or gardai starting salaries are quoted , but the overpayed people at , or near , the top are never highlighted......
Who . for example , is responsible for 'forecasting ' our exchequer returns ....in the good times they were consistently UNDERSTATED and now they are OVERSTATED ....in BILLIONS...
in the 7 months to July end we are already taken in 3 billion less than our mandarins forecast.......
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7 comments:
Why are you for benchmarking when its against international levels and against it when it against the private sector?
At the end of the day it should create an approx parity between both sides. The problem is its too slow to react. Some sections haven't even got their increases yet due under benchmarking. In theory it should do the reverease and lower wages as required. But it just takes too long. It started in 2003 or something like that.
Being competative with regard to wages say against India for example is all well and good, but your food bills and mortgage are in Ireland not India.
Of course its going to be hard to negociate a pay cut then they see things like this...
"SIPTU has negotiated a pay increase of 3% for workers in the motor trade."
and also...
"Private sector unions are to lodge immediate claims for a rise of €30 a week for low-paid workers after the collapse of the national pay talks last weekend."
"Private sector unions say that for workers earning above €38,000 they will be seeking at least 5% to match inflation — but may seek more in profitable businesses such as the banking sector."
The ministers haven't taken their pay raises of the table either.
Benchmarking is an absurd idea, I think, in the private or the public sector. Wages in the private sector take care of themselves and will ebb and flow based on international competition, mortgages, unemployment levels, food prices and all the rest. The idea that public sector employees could have their cake and eat it -- that they somehow deserved salaries comparable to people in banking, building and other high-risk, cyclical industries in addition to job security and lifetime benefits -- was a fallacy. If there is a severe recession, and the state employees don't take a pay cut or pay freeze, there'll be massive deficits. Don't blame the unions, though. They have every right to negotiate the best possible settlement for their members.
I thought benchmarking takes into account things like pension and job security? What alternatives to benchmarking are there?
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