[quote=SD Realtor]I showed a firefighter friend of mine bgs ridiculous post about govt workers and he laughed so hard he almost fell over. He was wondering when the last time you actually worked was.
So lets see… should I trust a current govt worker about the way things really are right now or someone who is an internet poster….
pretty easy decision.[/quote]
Actually, I really feel for today’s govm’t workers. Not only do they have MUCH higher health premiums deducted from their pay, their plans are significantly watered down from the plans offered in years and decades past and they have to work five years longer to “vest.”
In addition, instead of paysteps 1-5 and “step 2” being awarded after an initial six-month probationary period, the steps are now 0-8 and “step 0” is the probationary step which is now one year long! Step 0 is equivalent to about step 4-5 in the ’98 negotiations. We’re talking pennies difference between the steps here because these are entry level lineworkers. The steps were increased because they now require an employee to get to step 8 (2 yrs longer) to become eligible to promote internally. It was obviously (reluctantly?) agreed to by the unions to hold down “highest year” and “average of highest 3 years” pay used to calculate future pensions.
I’ve also been told by a current govm’t worker, when visiting an agency other than the one they work on their lunch hour to view or discuss their OWN personal records or business MUST wear their badge and IDENTIFY THEMSELVES as an employee of XYZ agency. If they do not and their employer finds out they were there, they could be disciplined. Apparently, an employee’s legal “unpaid lunch hour” activities have come under scrutiny by the gov’mt employer. Seems to me that the “unions” are losing ground . . .
I can’t imagine walking down the street on my lunch hour to pull my confidential “child support file,” my foster child’s MediCal file or my “disso file,” identifying myself as an xyz agency employee and finding out from my employer after I left that that agency called my agency’s personnel dept to tell them the details of my visit. I was completely aghast when hearing this as that practice appears to me to be an invasion of privacy and unconstitutional on its face.
