Pen pushers worth as much as prison officers?

[shirepro]

I see in todays paper that the prison service has got itself in a pickle because a claim for equal pay from administraive staff has gone through court, suggesting that administrative tasks are of equal value to prison officers who work on the wings of the prison. They now face a £55,000 a head claim from other admin and support staff costing over £100 million.

Has the world gone mad? Having visited a few places of her majesty's pleasure I wouldn't do the job of a prison officer for love nor money. To suggest they are of equal value is nonsense in my humble opinon. Next we'll have desk jockies in Whitehall wanting danger pay the same as those MOD employees in flak jackets in Irag, and ward cleaners wanting the pay of a doctor (they both fight disease after all. Myself, I intend to take a job as a match day steward at Liverpool FC, and claim the wage of Gerrard, after all we both contribute to the success of the club don't we?

[MILF]

Believe this was in connection with a recent Industrial Tribunal action involving cleaning staff who work(ed) for one of the Northern Councils (Northumbria if memory serves me right).

Essentially, it all comes down to sexual equality. Since different types of occupation attract differing sexes (ie cleaners, builders, road maintance staff etc), the powers that be (& the Unions were instrimental in this) decided that in order to properly demonstrate the principle of equality in general & equal pay in particular, that they would have to formulate an equation which compared, in pay terms, female cleaners to the same degree as say male labourers.

Not withstanding that building a house can hardly be compared to mopping a floor, the result of this Politically Correct madness is that potentially hundreds of thousands of female staff employed in the Public sector can now seek backdated pay at the cost of potentially billions of pounds, all paid for ofcourse by we taxpayers.

Thanks again Mr Blair.