by Up to 270,000 civil servants have begun a 48-hour strike over redundancy pay, claiming that reducing payouts to between two and three times their salary – tax free – is just plain mean.
The strike is the biggest unrest by the public sector in more than two decades, and demonstrates the strength of feeling among those who might have to struggle by on sums as small as one hundred and fifty times their weekly pay packet.
There has been significant support for the action from members of the public, with many claiming it was the ‘right thing to do’.
One tax payer said, “Look, I work for an accountancy firm, and I pay my taxes, and I do not want my tax pounds being spent on MPs moats.”
“I would much prefer the money to be spent funding a civil servant for a couple of years while they decide what they want to do next. You really can’t rush this type of thing.”
Support
Dave Trimble, an office worker from London whose job exists in the real world, told us, “I get an extra week of redundancy pay for every year of service, which isn’t a lot to be honest.”
“So I really don’t begrudge the civil servants getting three years salary as a pay off – so long they’ve worked there for a hundred and fifty years.”
“And to be fair, it looks like the lady in my local tax office has done just that.”
One critic of the strike said, “So, a quarter of a million civil servants won’t be doing their jobs for a couple of days. How will we even know?”
