The bargain that councils have with their workforces is starting to come apart at the seams. There was a time when local government offered lower pay than the private sector but compensated with a great pension and high levels of job security. That is now gone. Job security has evaporated, the final salary pension is under constant attack and staff are seeing their own pay held down at a time when their friends in the private sector are starting to get real terms increases once again. Public pay currently compares very well to that in the corporate world, but this cannot last much longer.
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