From Deputy Geoff Southern.
I WRITE to contest some of the assertions contained in your paper’s comment column (JEP, 2 December) entitled ‘Teachers’ strike threat’).
I could take issue with your statement that ‘the pay freeze…is neither a random act of malice nor a casual whim’. But that, quite correctly, is purely a matter of opinion.
However, your follow-up statement that (the freeze) is ‘necessary…to counter the effects of recession’ is false. It gathers not one jot of truth by virtue of repetition.
Further, to suggest that teachers ‘should be more capable of recognising the underlying logic’ (of a freeze) is mere rhetoric, since there is no logic.
The fact is that the vast majority of economists agree that the correct action to counter recession is to spend public money to stimulate the economy while the private sector recovers.
Senator Ozouf has recognised this with his fiscal stimulus package. But he turns a Nelsonian eye to the fact that putting money in the pockets of public sector workers is one of the most direct ways to get the local economy moving.
A pay rise is counter recessionary; a pay freeze makes the recession worse.
Senator Ozouf’s decision to impose an arbitrary and unilateral pay freeze will deepen the recession. It is fundamentally flawed.
I would be grateful if, in future, you could refrain from giving his actions a spurious credibility they do not deserve.
