Sir, – Pat Leahy perpetuates the myth of automatic annual increments for public sector workers in his article “Are public sector workers all as badly off as strikes might suggest? This is what the data says” (Opinion, October 18th).
To be clear, there is no system of annual increments in the public sector. What there is a collection of (publicly available) salary scales for all grades and professions in the public sector. Employees’ salaries progress up these scales until they reach the top point.
I worked for 40 years in the public sector. I was fortunate to be promoted three times during my career, moving to a higher salary scale each time. Despite this, for almost 20 of those 40 years, I received no increase.
For colleagues that did not secure as many, or indeed any, promotions, the situation is worse. Having reached the top point of the relevant salary scale, they did not receive any further increase.
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There is no system of salary review within the public sector. Because there is no system of annual increments, these colleagues were on the same salary point for years and in some cases decades.
Were it not for the public sector pay agreements in place over those years, their standard of living would have been hugely eroded.
There are advantages to working in the private sector and there are advantages to working in the public sector. Annual increments, however, is not one of the advantages for public sector workers. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN KELLEHER,
Ballinteer,
Dublin 16.
