Ministers threatened with sack over 'no confidence' vote

Wednesday 19 June 2019

Ministers were threatened with being sacked if they were to support a backbencher’s vote of no confidence over the progression of public sector pay negotiations, the Chief Minister has admitted.

Senator John Le Fondré, who chairs the States Employment Board (SEB), which is responsible for setting government workers' pay, made the admission during a grilling at yesterday's States Assembly sitting.

The vote of no confidence, which was put forward by Reform Jersey Deputy Geoff Southern but later withdrawn, came amid growing concerns about stunted negotiations between the Government and public sector workers' unions, who after months had not yet agreed the terms of a new pay deal.

In a report outlining why he was bringing the vote, the Deputy directly criticised the SEB, resulting in him being sacked from his role as Assistant Minister for Social Security. 

Pictured: Deputy Southern was sacked as an Assistant Minister for bringing the 'no confidence' bid.

But it has now emerged that all of the Ministers and Assistant Ministers within the Council of Ministers were threatened with this same fate if they supported the ‘no confidence’ bid.

This emerged in response to a question from Deputy Mary Le Hegarat, who asked the Chief Minister: “Did the Chief Minister tell the Council of Ministers that they would be sacked from their Ministerial roles if they voted in favour of the vote of no confidence brought by Deputy Southern?”

His answer to the Deputy was, simply: “Yes, sir.”

In bringing the vote – which was later withdrawn – Deputy Southern said it was in reaction to the SEB's inability to resolve the months' long battle over cost-of-living pay rises with public sector workers, which has resulted in strikes from civil servants and teachers.

Pictured: The members of the States Employment Board faced the 'no confidence' vote over the way they've handled the public sector pay dispute.

Further questions surrounding the ongoing pay dispute arose during yesterday’s States Assembly meeting.

Deputy Jess Perchard asked the Chief Minister about the "final" offer made to teachers - specifically what “efficiencies” would be identified to secure the 0.8% on top of the 1.3% above RPI increase that teachers want.

In response, the Chief Minister emphasised that any “efficiencies” would be agreed through a “working group” between union reps and senior management. When asked to give an example, he suggested changing to cheaper-to-run lightbulbs or introducing a Senior Teaching Assistant role which would be able to cut down on supply teacher and lunchtime cover costs. 

However, he emphasised that these were just suggestions, adding: “I don’t want to be prescriptive because that is not my role in this.”

So far, the National Education Union (NEU) has agreed the pay deal, but the other teaching union – the NASUWT – is still in talks.  

Pictured: More questions were raised about the teaching pay offer in the States sitting yesterday.

Meanwhile, Express understands that the agreement of this offer by the NEU has had implications for the civil service unions.

They were in the middle of balloting their members on their latest pay offer when they were told that some of their members, including teaching assistants and key workers within education, would be getting a separate offer under the parameters of the teaching agreement. 

It’s understood that this invalidated the ballot which was already well underway and the civil service unions are meeting with the employer to better understand this overlap before deciding how to proceed.