Servants not so uncivil?
Page 15
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AS A regular reader of CM, I was sorry to see the Hawk desert his normally high journalistic standard and resort to knocking Civil Servants (May 30).
I write both as a senior officer of Customs and Excise and as a holder of a Class 1 hgv licence and CPC, and feel I may be qualified to comment.
It was stated that we had no compunction about putting other people's jobs at risk. I can assure you that the strike action currently being taken is the last resort of a group of workers trying to get fair treatment from their employers.
It is a sad fact that strikes have effects on the lives and work of those outside the dispute — look, for instance, at the lorrydrivers' strike not so long ago.
On the subject of pay, it may be of interest that for the past three years my take-home pay has been the same as that of a truck-driver of a national biscuit company, not a fortune by anyone's standards.
I am the first to agree that such a driver has considerable responsibilities both to his employers and the community at large, but I can also state that my responsibilities are even higher.
As for redundancy, if I was offered similar terms to his I might just cry as far as the bank! KELVIN J. ELLIS Marlow, Bucks