The Vice Chancellor (V.C.) is the top person in a university, a management role, who must spend an incredible amount of their time in meetings and keeping up to date with legislation and educational matters relevant to their field. Of course it's a important job, like any management role but do you consider these jobs more important than a lecturer/teacher/tutor? One tutor can have a profound affect on a high number of students who they teach in their life time, but could a V.C. be said in the same light? So surely to be fair these high earners should just take the same level of increase as their own staff, is it fair they want higher rewards? Surely you want the position for the rate given when you first applied and accept pay increases or bonus structures. Do you suddenly have the power to put forward your own thoughts to your pay, where did the democracy in your institutions go?
Remembering back a short time ago I read about MP's pay too, they wanted to increase these to try and bring in better people. There was a belief many people would not take a government position over a private opportunity, as they offer a better financially rewards. Well I'm afraid the cogito of this argument is invalid to me, people will always strive to earn more, that's who we are. But you cannot just pay people better money or equivalent, we are still in a financial predicament with our budgets, so the answer is about recruitment not pay. People should be hired who want the job, anyone joining the list of civil servants understands the merits and problems associated with employment. Positions like MP's should be given to people of honour and courage, yes I appreciate they need a level of education to understand what is required of representing the public, but history shows education does not mean success or the public vote. Another thing to note is there is no formal training, no certification, so they deal with important matters they are very unskilled people compared to lots of other jobs, so it would not be fair to pay them a high wage. Should they earn more than our fire brigade or soldiers on the front line, or a nurse???
We need people who want the work and will work hard for their money, honest, so they will not make fictitious financial claims, will not sit on the boards of dozens of other companies. MP's should work one job, they should have no other involvements in other businesses, not sit on a board of shareholders or committee's, defending the public is their sole business. All I see is people using the status to get themselves started on the ladder to affluence, luckily I have no greed or envy, I am proud of my humble life, I am a professional in my role, I put in extra to help future generations, I work as hard as the next person, but I only have one job, maybe I should try out for applying to be an M.P.?
