Public Sector Pay Freeze

My colleagues at the local power plant were today agitated by Gord’s call for a prolonged period of wage restraint in the public services. The Chancellor indicated that during the next few years the annual increase in public sector pay should be kept low, preferably less than 2.25%. Given that Gord’s own economic policy assumes an annual inflation rate of 2%, this new PPP (public pay proclamation) effectively represents a real terms pay freeze.

Gord was not the only senior member of the Red Team to infuriate local power plant workers today. His former best mate, Tone, suggested that the recent rate of improvement in schools and hospitals has been insufficient given the additional money Gord has allowed him to spend on public services. Tone wants public servants to raise their game and deliver further improvements, and soon. This is purely personal – Tone wants to take all the credit for any service improvements before Gord takes the reins of the Red Team’s bandwagon.

So, the Prime Minister says public services are not good enough and the Chancellor warns public sector staff not to expect pay rises. We all recognise that public services need to deliver high standards and use resources efficiently. However, these surly messages from Tone and Gord will neither boost morale nor motivate improved performance amongst public sector staff.

Yet all is not bleak in the local power plant. At least DaveCam loves us. Today he admitted that during recent decades the Blue Team had been wrong to adopt the blinkered mantra ‘private good, public bad’ and ill-advised to characterise public servants as being idle, inefficient and generally rubbish. Instead, DaveCam insists that private enterprise can learn greatly from public sector management, and that public servants are talented, hard working types who deliver valuable services that enrich our lives. Moreover, DaveCam’s best mate, Georgie, recently stated that the Blue Team will not seek tax cuts at the expense of investment in public services.

So, while the Red Team is criticising the public sector and threatening its staff with a pay freeze, the Blue Team is defending services and lavishing public servants with praise and affection. The times they are a changin'....