Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

doesn't mean they should be exhorbitant either

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

And I don't see why they should get more than nurses,carers teachers,nursery workers,firemen,coastguards,servicemen and thousands of public sector workers

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

No it probably shouldn't be but there seems to a bit of an over reaction from all parts of the country about it and in particular how unfair it is that they have such a good deal, well my take on it is yes they do have very good t&c's but instead of dragging them down to most others levels lets try and improve everyone elses up to their level, the working time regulations kicking in next year should make for an interesting start.

---------- Post added at 20:30 ---------- Previous post was at 20:29 ----------

Except Saturday, Sunday and six weeks in the summer, then it's very comparable.

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

I'd still do it.

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

Shows how much you know about the hours teachers work to be honest.

Yes they get that time off in the middle of the year and the other holidays, they don't get 43 days paid leave to take whenever as a tube drive does and certainly the teachers I know have to work weekends in order to get lessons planned and do their marking and admin. They don't have the luxury of working for 35 hours a week and disappearing off home, they work closer to twice that during term time.

Taking a teacher and tube driver and trying to claim they're comparable is farcical. One is underpaid for what is a post-graduate position, poorly treated and has an immensely stressful job, the other massively overpaid for what is at most semi-skilled labour, protected from most of the same issues the rest of us have to deal with as they can hold their employer at ransom, and have conditions of employment well beyond anything most can hope for.

---------- Post added at 22:22 ---------- Previous post was at 22:14 ----------

Talking to a driver on First Great Western who's had a few one unders he got nicely desensitised to them, and moreover had no problems at all after the first one. He found the first one somewhat traumatic though not for very long, the next one he enjoyed the months of paid time off for something he was relatively indifferent to.

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

There are also the matter of after school activities like staff meetings, sports,plays,parents evenings and in the case of secondary teachers, extra coaching classes for GCSE students sometimes before school,sometimes afterwards,sometimes at weekends.Also many staff give up some holidays to take students on field trips.

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

I would also add that during the school holidays (summer ,easter ,half terms ) i work in a lot of schools putting new windows/doors in as that is the most convenient and practible time and it has to said that there are always teachers and other school staff floating about preparing classrooms/lessons ect

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

Yeah teacher training was wasted on me :rolleyes:


Lucky him, perhaps if he had to clean to goo of the train he might not be so blase about it next time.

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

I support them on the basis inflation is rampant.

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

4.8% rampant?

Try 16%, as in the 80s....

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

I reckon bus drivers get a much worse deal than their underground equivalents. There's not much separating them from all the fare dodgers and generally nasty types they come face to face with on a daily basis and I reckon driving around London on congested roads getting shouted at, beeped at and worse is generally lot more stressful than driving a tube rain.

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

Evidently it was wasted on you, or left you quite bitter towards the profession if you equate a 3 year degree, a year PGCE, basically no paid leave as it has to be in school holidays and working 70 hours a week in term times with saying 'Mind the doors' and pushing a lever backwards and forwards for 35 hours a week, with 43 days of paid leave per year after a matter of weeks of training.

Oddly enough drivers don't clean their own trains. They drive them.

Regardless it doesn't change that this is nonsense. There's an agreement from 1996 which bakes into it the working of public holidays as part of the currently £45,545 basic, plus overtime, plus 43 days paid leave per year on a 35 hour working week.

Agreements are there for a reason, the unions try their luck every so often, this is obviously one of the more absurd examples trying to obtain a day off in lieu and triple time for a standard bank holiday which is already covered by existing compensation arrangements.

EDIT: Just to add to the hilarity the unions agreed in return for their ransom demands over the Olympics giving them the huge pay rises and bonus to not strike over pay, so this is a dispute about time off. Ya.

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

In my opinon, this proves that strong unions work, The only reason that Tube Drivers are getting £55k is that they have strong unions. If more employees had strong unions, they we would have less occupy protests and less people feeling less well off

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

erm, how do you think the more people on £55k would get paid - from the magic money tree?

Re: Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'
 

From the business elite, what would happen if more people were paid £55k would be that there would be a redistbution of wealth from the elite to average workers, creating a more equal society