Why just target teachers?

[mint]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8118641/Teachers-pay-and-sickness-records-to-be-published.html

How about publishing the same sort of information about all functionaires?

[woolybanana]

Surely, they will eventually?

[Gardener]

Is this governments aim to simply turn sections of the population against each other - people v the unemployed, teachers, firemen, civil servants , who next?

Some schools may have high sickness rate, unless the government address why orl parents make any correlation between these schools and the behaviour of their own offspring, what is the point of the exercise?

They will have to be careful how much information they release - the HR Act is now with us.

[woolybanana]

Not sure the Govt is doing that, rather it is trying to make those paid from the public purse work for their money and perhaps making sure those jobs are necessary.

Apropos of teachers, there is no obligation for teachers to cover for absent colleagues now, in the State sector; whilst I have a degree of sympathy with this, it means that there is no moral imperative to come in to work.

And the public sector in general does take many more sick days than the private. Whether this applies to teachers or not remains to be seen.

[Richard51]

Salaries scales of public sector employees eg teachers, professional NHS workers, police etc are already published and hence freely available.

Sickness levels have certainly been highlighted in recent times and "management" are always devising and publicising strategies to reduce these.

What I'd be interested in for the public sector is the proportion of staff on "senior pay" and whether one particular organisation  e.g. school, NHS Trust, council  etc, was perhaps "top-heavy" compared to similar institutions. Can't say I've delved, but can't imagine that its easy to find.

There does seem to be a move towards more openness, certainly in these difficult times (eg, yet again, the BBC) and this I do applaud.

Mr R51  (Mrs R51 is in France, lucky person!)

[Frederick]

Wooly wrote  

  " And the public sector in general does take many more sick days than the private. Whether this applies to teachers or not remains to be seen. "

Used to be 10 days uncertified sick days a year... I used to be reminded to  " take them or you will lose them "  as the end of the financial year approached .  Does it still apply ?

 

[Richard51]

Fred (erick)

Exactly why "management" have taken a more proactive stance!!!

Perhaps controversial: Though its more difficult to sack people in the public sector than private.

To give this a more French twist - its impossible in France in either sector!!!!. I await the comments!!!!

[Quillan]

In the area's of the public service I have worked at i.e. local council education departments and most of the London museums it appeared to me that sick leave is an entitlement and there to be used. I have actually had workers tell me that they are off tomorrow because they will have a headache. Likewise the additional days holiday for length of service, I actually had one bloke who worked for me take every Friday off plus he managed 2 weeks holiday in the summer and Christmas and a week at Easter as he had accumulated all this extra holiday and we are not talking about somebody close to retirement either. Although I did work in education departments I didn't get that involved with teachers so I don't know for sure if they also took their sickness entitlement. I do wonder if the lack of ability to discipline children has created more stress amongst teachers, always having to think about dealing with disruptive kids as opposed to actually teaching and has resulted in them taking more sick days.

[Iceni]

The answer is simple - pay people when they are at work, not when on holiday or "sick". Or better still, pay them only when they work.

In the bad old days when I was an IT contractor absenteeism was almost unknown.

John