Teachers to take industrial action across East Yorkshire

“Ignorance and bigotry characterise many of these anti teacher contributions. All I can say is unless you have a generous private income or are a £100K+ a year earner, WAKE UP! Look what this government is doing to your employment including lately the early steps to sack on whim employment law, removal of more TU rights and so on. By opposing this action by teachers you are simply cheering on the race to the bottom. Forward to the nineteen thirties with Cameron.”

“@DanDramire - (Assuming you aimed your comment at me)- No one's 'whining', merely pointing out that there a number of other tasks which teachers need to complete beyond teaching hours. This isn't poor time management, but the nature of the job.”

“What a load of hot air.

No teacher has to cover for an absent colleague (a concession won many years ago)
No teacher has to produce more than one report a year (a concession won many years ago)
No teacher has to take part in any lunchtime supervision (a concession won many years ago)
Mock inspections are voluntary.
Teachers get a minimum of 10% non teaching time (for preparation etc).

So what these teachers are saying is that .... they won't start to do anything that they haven't done for about 10 years anyway!

As for starting at 7:30 and finishing at 6:15, this is purely due to poor time management on the part of the teacher. They need to change their approach and not shift the blame onto any third party. Stop whining and organise yourself better. In forty years of teaching I can honest say that I rarely saw any teachers in school after 5pm unless it was for an evening meeting or they were running a voluntary activity.

If anyone disagrees, tell us which school you work in and I am sure many local parents will confirm a dark school with an absence of cars after 5.30pm.”

“Deanog734: 'my wife is a nurse so we will have at least one decent pension to look forward too'. Err, no Deanog, you will not. The Government are slashing pensions of front-line NHS staff. They have to work until 67, pay more in and get less out due to NHS pensions being 'unsustainable' (even though the treasury had a 2m surplus last year). If you are relying on your wife's pension to provide in your dotage, I implore you to see a financial advisor as you may have been given wrong information. Make no mistake, the government will come for us all eventually - whether we work in the public sector or not.”

“Bored marker, thank you for this reasoned debate, glad we have'nt resorted to name calling. I am not anti public sector, my wife is a nurse so we will have at least one decent pension to look forward too, but as you say government borrowing can not be sustained at present levels and something has to give. One reason why private pensions are giving such poor returns is because people are living much longer, surely public sector pensions should reflect this also, added to the fact that under the last government the Public sector increased massively to the extent that in some areas of the country private companies find it difficult to recruit because they cannot match public sector pay & conditions, though thankfully this is now been corrected.

Regarding large companies & tax, unfortunately we live in a global economy and companies can move to where they will pay the least tax, at the moment we are in a race to the bottom hence corporation tax reduced again at the last budget, hopefully as the rest of the world becomes as indebted as we are this madness will end.”

“Don't get me wrong deanog, I'm fully aware of how good public sector workers have it at the moment and it would be a lie if I said that the pension wasn't a deciding factor in my choice of work. For the last 70+ years the governemt has always honoured the deal to contribute to local governement pension schemes (inc. teachers) and admitedly they have acheived this through borrowing. The decision to cut their contribution down and increase our own is a choice they have made rather than pursuing big companies that don't pay tax (vodafone have an unpaid tax bill of £1bn to name just one) because they are aware of the fact that people generally speaking seem to resent public sector workers because we have historically drawn big pension cheques and like consumer items (like mobile phones!). and would be easily swayed to their way of thinking. Also as a bit of a moot point, i wouldn't call what our household pays in tax a "small refund"! :)

I think it's shocking that you have to make such heavy pension payments to recives such a small payout in the end but private pensions seem more like safety nets at the moment. on a seperate note, you might want to consider paying into an ISA instead of (or as well as if poss) your pension as your potentil return should be better. :)

As I said previously, the vast majority of public sector workers want people from both industry sectors to have access to pension schemes as good as ours and yes in the process, protect our current terms and conditions.

Its clear that the level of Government and private borrowing in the UK couldn't carry on but right now the country is getting stiffed by an economic elite in charge of keeping the masses in check with austerity cuts to the normal people and tax breaks for the rich and they've got some great distractions in the form of teachers kicking up a stink. Unfortunately we are playing right into their hands.”

“I appreciate public sector workers pay tax and contribute towards their pensions but you've got to remember your wages are paid by the government, therefore private sector & borrowing, any contributions you make are a small refund back to the government. If you want to talk figures, I earn £350 a week net and pay £220 a month into a private pension, I have to increase this by 5% annually to keep pace with inflation. At the last statement this was predicted to give me an annual pension of £4500 ! this is not guaranteed & totally dependant on future stock market movements, so count yourself lucky.”

“deanog, what isn't funded by tax, private sector tax or otherwise? public sector workers pay tax on their earnings too you know, probably a lot more in the long run that self employed people who may or may not declare all their earnings.

The government's contribution to public sector pension reflects the compensation for lower rates of pay. I am quite happy to take that lower rate in order to benfit through a lucrative pension scheme. If they insist upon changing my pension to offer a lower rate of contribution then it stand to reason that they should up mine and my colleagues wages.

You've got to remeber that the vast majority of public sector workers don't just want our pensions protecting but want a fairer system for all whether they are public or private sector workers.

Public sector pensions are not "totally funded by tax and borrowing". I make a contribution of 9.5% of my annual income into my pension. Under the new rules I will pay £25000 more into my pension and recieve £250000(!) less over a 20 year period. Explain to me how this is fair?

The Gov' and their mates at The Sun and Daily Mail have basically succeeded in their plan of divide and rule between public and private sector workers by only publishinng half the facts.”

“Bored marker, how can any public sector pension claim to "be in the red" when they are totally funded by private sector tax money and government borrowing ?”

“wish i had all those holidays, sorry pre planning days, they wouldnt have lasted a week on the docks”