17th October 2005, 09:40 PM
Well I agree that the BAJR levels are too low, although I fully appreciate that Mr Hosty's hands are largely tied by the prevailing economic trends in the profession.
The BAJR pay grades are based upon local government payscales, which initially appears fine. However on the jobs page this states that it is for a 37hr week and does not include holiday entitlement, which in my experience local government authorities do pay, and certainly does not include the hefty payments which go into the final salary pension schemes that all us local gov employees have (if we want). Then theres all those other little things such as human resource depts insisting on longer term contracts and not allowing the laying off of staff because its xmas. And lets not forget the cheap booze at the social club. These extra benefits, on top of the low wage packet, is what keeps most local gov employees in their jobs, particularly the pension - just watch the fun and games that'll ensue when the gov tries to end the final salary based scheme.
A unit advertising on BAJR must be laughing as they meet these payscales, and then get their new employees working 40hr weeks with no holiday or pensions, probably saving themselves ?100-200 a month per person compared to the local gov units, who they can then happily undercut.
If BAJR is going to use local gov scales as a basis for the grades, then advertisers should at least be be paying holidays and into pensions. Or the grades could go up a grand or 3....
A simple online database showing units pay grades for, for example, diggers, supervisors and PO's would be nice(i know that theres loads of you specialists out there but its probably a bit harder to compare u all). However I suppose even if we all told BAJR the data he couldnt put it online for fear of a single digit being wrong and getting sued.
The BAJR pay grades are based upon local government payscales, which initially appears fine. However on the jobs page this states that it is for a 37hr week and does not include holiday entitlement, which in my experience local government authorities do pay, and certainly does not include the hefty payments which go into the final salary pension schemes that all us local gov employees have (if we want). Then theres all those other little things such as human resource depts insisting on longer term contracts and not allowing the laying off of staff because its xmas. And lets not forget the cheap booze at the social club. These extra benefits, on top of the low wage packet, is what keeps most local gov employees in their jobs, particularly the pension - just watch the fun and games that'll ensue when the gov tries to end the final salary based scheme.
A unit advertising on BAJR must be laughing as they meet these payscales, and then get their new employees working 40hr weeks with no holiday or pensions, probably saving themselves ?100-200 a month per person compared to the local gov units, who they can then happily undercut.
If BAJR is going to use local gov scales as a basis for the grades, then advertisers should at least be be paying holidays and into pensions. Or the grades could go up a grand or 3....
A simple online database showing units pay grades for, for example, diggers, supervisors and PO's would be nice(i know that theres loads of you specialists out there but its probably a bit harder to compare u all). However I suppose even if we all told BAJR the data he couldnt put it online for fear of a single digit being wrong and getting sued.