Anyone of a certain age will have heard all of this strike posturing many times before, especially the ‘it’s a matter for employers and workers, the government should not be involved’. There’s been much talk from the man who doesn’t want to get involved (Grant Shapps, Transport Minister) of the ‘median salary’ of train drivers, £59,189 apparently. Well, they’re doing OK, aren’t they, I’ve heard on many a ‘phone in. They do have a lot of lives in their hands, however. More, perhaps, than the average CEO of a FTSE 100 company (median salary £2.69m) or Premiership Footballer (£3.17m). Although perhaps not as many as the average nurse (£31,093) or care worker (£16,502). Scope for more than a little levelling up there, I’d say.
“The working-from-home illusion fades”
Are workers working from home more or less productive than those catching the 7.02am to London Bridge every day? ‘Probably sitting at home in their bleedin’ jim-jams’, said someone recently of a less-than-helpful call centre employee, the assumption being that, were they surrounded by colleagues and with a manager cracking the whip, he or she would have sorted his energy bill more efficiently.
