Myth of the underpaid public sector worker

The Telegraph headline the news that:

'The Office for National Statistics found that full-time public sector staff earned an average of £74 a week more than those in the private sector. Once employer pension contributions were included, the gap rose to £136, illustrating the generous pay-and-perks deals enjoyed by local and central government workers.

The findings threaten to undermine calls by the Trades Union Congress at its conference in Manchester this week for "civil disobedience" and co-ordinated strike action in protest against the Government's planned public sector spending cuts.

...

In its September Economic and Labour Market Review, published yesterday, the national statistician reported that the average weekly salary for public sector workers in April last year was £539, compared with £465 in the private sector.

The difference was more stark when pensions were included because fewer than half of the private sector workforce were enrolled in a retirement scheme, compared with nearly all in the public sector – many of which are taxpayer-subsidised final salary schemes paying two thirds of working income for life. Including employer pension contributions, the total average remuneration package for the public sector was worth £615 a week and £479 for a private sector worker. Mark Littlewood, the director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs think tank, said the report illustrated "just how preposterous" the TUC's claims were. '

Fascinating but unsurprising I thought as it is well known that the myth of the underpaid public sector worker is just that, a myth.

So I thought that I would see how the BBC are reporting this news... Not on the news front page, not on the UK news front page, not on the business news front page and not on the politics news front page. Have the BBC really ignored this story and if so what is their excuse?