91 States IT staff could go

Wednesday 21 October 2015

Up to 91 jobs could be axed by the States and their jobs outsourced to the private sector in a major restructuring of IT services.

Staff working in business support groups, enterprise support groups, and IT services will be affected by plans to outsource their roles, according to plans seen by Bailiwick Express.

The redesign of Information Services is part of the States’ reform of public services – part of a package designed to save £145 million to fill a black hole expected in public finances by 2019.

A report seen by Bailiwick Express says that by February 2016, the remaining IT staff will have new job descriptions, reporting lines, and team structures, along with new roles and responsibilities.

Some of the teams will be moved out of States’ employment to a new private or voluntary organisation under a policy known as TOPSE, or the Transfer of Public Service Employees.

Staff working on the network, the servers and the service desk, are most likely to be transferred.

A statement from the Chief Minister's department confirmed that a review of outsourcing was taking place with a view to getting the private sector to provide some IT services - but they refused to confirm the numbers in the document seen by Bailiwick Express.

A further review will conduct a market test into whether outsourcing the States' IT could deliver a better service.

States Chief Executive, John Richardson, said: “The Information Services team members have had several communications during the course of the last three months and, understandably, the levels of change discussed have led to some unease. However, there has also been optimism that the plans will lead to an improvement.

“A programme of ongoing engagement and dialogue is planned over the coming months to ensure involvement in the programme of work, both on an individual basis and in consultation with the unions.

Last year the Ports of Jersey carried out a similar exercise which involved over 31 rounds of meetings with harbour and Airport employees to discuss proposals. While the Ports of Jersey transfer of employees pledged to maintain the same number of jobs for staff wishing to transfer, at the same levels of pay, it is not yet clear whether this will be the case for Information Services.

In September the States announced a voluntary redundancy scheme which will see 104 employees take pay-offs to leave the jobs over the next few months.

Along with voluntary redundancies, the States have introduced a pay freeze and restructuring of pay grades to save £70 million from the States’ annual pay bill.

At the time Chief Minister Ian Gorst said: “In some areas there will need to be compulsory redundancies.

“We said all along that we would go through voluntary redundancy and reorganisation and that we would have pay restraint, and then we would consider whether compulsory redundancies were necessary and we thought that they probably would be.”