125 States staff have already taken a pay-off to quit – and many more could follow

Wednesday 20 April 2016

The States pay bill has been cut by around £4.6 million after 125 employees took a pay-off to quit their jobs since the start of last year.

The initial voluntary redundancy scheme in 2015 saw 104 people leave the public sector, and 21 out of 159 applications have already been approved for a new scheme that opened at the start of this year.

Most of those leaving have come from management, administration and business support roles.

The savings – which come on top of recruitment efficiencies that have saved £55,000 per year and reductions in external consultant spending – were revealed by Treasury Minister Alan Maclean yesterday.

He told an Institute of Directors audience at the Grand Hotel that compulsory redundancies would be used “where necessary” and that work to meet the ambitious savings targets needed to fill the £145 million structural deficit was progressing well.

And the minister said that growth across GDP, housing market activity, employment and earnings showed that the Island’s economy was bouncing back.

“Despite the challenges the financial services sector has been resilient and although many jobs were initially lost, ultimately total employment in the sector has now recovered to close to the pre-crisis levels,” he said.

“The industry has had to adapt to change and it’s encouraging to see between 2013 and 2014 total net profit went up by 25%.

“More broadly we currently have the highest ever number of people in paid work.

“We have pumped more money into the economy – spending more on services and capital projects than we take out in tax.”

Senator Maclean, who took over the role of Treasury Minister at the end of 2014 just before the scale of the deficit was revealed, said that he was sticking to his pledge that there would be no significant changes to company tax and the 20% personal tax rate.

He also signalled a “tax amnesty” for individuals and companies in 2017, and said that joint online filing of tax returns and Social Security contributions would be coming soon.