A hat tip to the UNISON website for spotting the report from the (sometimes dodgy) New Local Government Network which reveals that a third of local government workers are due to retire in the next ten years and not enough people want to work in local government.
Rather worryingly, graduates apparently believe that the average local government worker is a slightly overweight middle-aged middle class white man in glasses. This is of course inaccurate in a number of respects – and even I don’t meet all of those criteria! (Obviously there will be a small prize for the UNISON Branch Secretary in Greater London who most closely meets this stereotype…)
In fact, low pay is a significant problem in local government, amongst our majority female workforce – part of the reason why equal pay is a central concern for our Union.
Having just published (and responded to) an ill-informed hostile comment on another post having a go at us local government workers, I am particularly keen that we get the truth out there.
While a misleading image of local government workers may worsen recruitment problems it also helps our employers and the Government when it comes to holding down our pay.
No comments:
Post a Comment