Scottish Sunday Express - Breaking news, sport and showbiz from the World's Greatest Newspaper
Newspaper Cover Page
Our Paper

Front and Back Pages, E-Edition and Back Issues...

Weather
 3°C
London
Wednesday 3rd December 2008 Make us your HOME PAGE  What is RSS?
Have Your Say - User Comments

ARTICLE SUMMARY

Civil servants stage 48-hour strike

Thousands of Jobcentre and benefit office workers are to launch a 48-hour strike in a row over pay amid signs of worsening unrest across the civil service.

NO ONE ELSE TO HELP

19.03.08, 7:14pm

sick of getting pushed from pillar to post so i done the only thing that was left for me to do get intouch with the government dept that deals with the pensions.So you have a union to look after you how nice and you are saying you are only getting just above min wage JOKE, come into the real world you are no better than the jokers running this country.

• Posted by: alloutReport Comment

UNITY IS STRENGTH

18.03.08, 9:03pm

So what if flexi time is a 'perk' which is 'unique' to the civil service. It is part of our terms and conditions, negotiated by our union PCS.

Believe it or not I've had perks working in the Private Sector too. At Somerfield I got a 10% discount card for myself and my family, at a small publishers I worked at our Christmas party was paid for by the company and i was allowed to take a long lunch their too if I made the time up (which is basically all flexi time is).

It is unfortunate that the previous poster was unable to speak to someone about their query due to the only person who could sort it being on a long lunch.

Maybe without the cuts in the DWP, there would have been someone else to help you.

• Posted by: Proud_Civil_Servant_and_Trade_UnionistReport Comment

TO ALL CIVIL SEVANTS ON THIS SITE

18.03.08, 8:01pm

i work as a civil servant in 1989 the pay i got then was a lot more than any other office worker was getting so where you mention you get just above min wage its a joke. you also said you wanted a bit out of the pot what about the pensioners £105 week to live on.
What about all the flexi time no other company has that perk, and then we come to all the mistakes that are made by incompatent staff who put the wrong details on claiments records and then accuse them of a false claim when a claiment complains they are told it was a computer error. i could go on and on, so get back to work and do the job you are paid for if you dont like it find another job

• Posted by: alloutReport Comment

KEEP THE CIVIL SERVICE IN BRITAIN

18.03.08, 5:37pm

Well said C Deacon! I echo your comments wholeheartedly!
When you find yourself talking to a Call Centre in downtown Delhi and pulling your hair out because they can't understand what you want to say or do, then remember the Civil Servants trying to do their best for you and some of the most vulnerable people in society with less staff, inadequate IT systems and a flawed benefits system!!!! I'm a Civil Servant and proud to be on strike today whilst fat cats line their pockets. We want a tiny proportion of the billions of pounds of tax payers money squandered on ill- conceived IT and private consultants who don't know our job! You try finding work for ex cons, drug addicts, alchoholics and school leavers who cannot read or write and face a constant stream of abuse daily in an unscreened environment. All this for just above the national minimum wage because I like helping people and would like to try and make a difference.

• Posted by: jeffo75Report Comment

GENERAL PUBLIC HAVEN'T A CLUE !

18.03.08, 4:29pm

I've just read some of the comments on this board.Largely written by a bunch of uneducated, gullible, ill-informed neanderthals with a loose grasp of the facts and an even looser grasp of common sense.
Civil Servants have been cut time and again by "New Labour" both in terms of pay and numbers and now the service offered is miraculously good considering the constant erosion of our working conditions by our political muppet masters.The DWP touches EVERY single UK citizens life and when you are unable to get your parents disability benefits sorted before they die or help with an Emergency Payment for you and your children when you are made redundant you will be greatful for a decently funded Civil Serice.If some of you lot get your way you will be left with a disastrous mess run by private companies unanswerable to anyone but there shareholders.Actually, that's all some of you deserve.

• Posted by: ChrisDeaconReport Comment

CIVIL SERVICE

17.03.08, 9:28pm

48 hour strike i phoned one of there departments last week and was told the person i wanted to speak to was on her dinner, then i was told they would get her to phone me back i presumed one hour dinner, and they said i dont know they take as long as they want.
Does this mean they might as well be on strike all the time clock on at 9 dinner untill 4.45 clear desk go home.

• Posted by: alloutReport Comment

TO PUT MATTERS STRAIGHT.

17.03.08, 4:54pm

Sorry jonocynic9 seems i have touched a nerve somewhat??? I can only presume that you are a civil servant that belives that you are under paid. well i said in an earlier comment that there is an old saying that if you pay peanuts then you get monkeys. That being said the reverse is also true, and we have more than enough monkeys in the civil service, so enjoy your nuts.

• Posted by: Russell42Report Comment

SOME PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING

17.03.08, 4:43pm

Russell42 believes civil sevants get huge pensions. Last year the average civil service pension was £4.7K which is probably just a bit less than state pension (figures supplied by PCS union). Do you also believe that the characters in Coronation Street are actually real people? Do you believe there is such an entity as the tooth fairy? Judging by the rubbish you print, I expect you probably do. A few more facts and a little less half-baked opinion and we might take you a little more seriously.

• Posted by: jonocynic9Report Comment

CIVIL SERPANTS.

17.03.08, 3:56pm

Once again the worms are trying to turn, they take the governments shilling, and then strike, what a pathetic bunch. We all know that the civil service is in melt down, can anyone mention a government department that is run with any efficency at all, or one that gives value for money. All we hear is moaning, well the answer is simple, if you dont like the terms and conditions then leave! Why should we pay extra so that data discs can go missing or that big pensions schemes can be funded, what age can civil servants retire at??? Get a taste of the real world where you have to earn your money not just sit on your fat backsides shuffling paper all day long creating mayhem for the rest of us.

• Posted by: Russell42Report Comment

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, SO WHAT!

17.03.08, 2:23pm

You all like to have a dig at the civil service but without us this country would grind to a halt. I bet you all earn more than the average civil servant but you are so entrenched in your misguided hatred of the public sector that has been carefully nurtured by the Govt. and the media that you all make yourselves look stupid with your reactionary braying everytime we strike. At least some of us are standing up to a bullying Govt. What are you doing?

• Posted by: jonocynic9Report Comment

OVERPAID

17.03.08, 9:47am

If they are getting 24p more than the minimum wage I think they are being over paid. When you go to the job centre now they give you a couple of leads and you do the rest hardly rocket science is it, besides if they don't like the pay and conditions I am sure their are plenty of people in my age group who are unemployed who would only be too happy to do the work

• Posted by: sportysnapperReport Comment

User Image

YET MORE BITCHING BY THOSE WHO EXPLOIT

17.03.08, 8:47am

Why on earth do these Civil Servants continue bitching with utter nonsense?

They are surplus to requirements and are the one of the biggest Scroungers from the state purse.

Positions that are unjustified and will most certainly be placed into the history box.

2010, every claimant will have a medical; the targets are for 700,000 claimants.

So the 80,000 plus DWP staff should go...

Job centres will be privatised, so all the other Civil Servants Scrounging from the state purse should go...

Stop Bashing and bullying those most vulnerable in society without considering both the direct and indirect implications.

• Posted by: bytebackReport Comment

User Image

THE ROT DWELLS AMONG LOONY LEFTINESS

17.03.08, 7:37am

If the government departments had to make a profit or achieve targets as in private industry to keep their jobs they would all be sacked ?

• Posted by: abuelaReport Comment

User Image

WHO THE HELL'S GOING TO NOTICE??

17.03.08, 2:40am

So the little piglets are following the BIGPIGS -- wee wee wee weeeee all the way to the trough!! ---- First the pensions - then the pay - how long before DWP pc want second homes too??
Where stops the rot???

• Posted by: DRAGONFLYReport Comment

Todays best TV right here for you at the Express. • See Guide

The Political Cartoonist of the Year