Government: Strikes caused “minimal” disruption

Wednesday 28 August 2019

Recent strike action by over 200 civil servants fighting for a new pay deal had “limited impact” on services, the government has claimed.

Members of public sector unions Unite and JCSA Prospect walked out on Friday 23 August and yesterday (Tuesday 27 August), coinciding with ballots on the most recent offer from the States Employment Board (SEB) of a wage increase in 2020 equivalent to the inflation rate plus 1.3%.

Speaking ahead of the strikes, JSCA Prospect’s Vice Chair explained that they had been “scheduled for a time when many staff are on leave and departments are running with minimal staff” in order that it would have a “greater" impact.

But the government has suggested that the move didn’t have the desired effect, with officials stating that services were hardly affected.

Pictured: The latest pay offer is RPI plus 1.3% for 2020.

In a statement released as yesterday’s action concluded, they said that 222 staff were marked as on strike on Friday, and around 220 yesterday, equating to around 7% of the 3,000-strong civil service workforce.

Describing the overall impact as “limited”, a spokesperson said that there was no disruption to flight or ferry timetables, with passengers from mainland Europe only encountering “minor delays.”

In the Customer and Local Services Department, they noted that some services had “limited cover”, but noted that “queue times were not affected by strike action.”

Some patients accessing clinical support services and outpatients did have to have their appointments rescheduled, however, due to the action.

Pictured: Some hospital appointments had to be rescheduled due to the strike action.

“The hospital rescheduled some appointments that fell on Friday 23 August, to earlier during that week. Where an earlier appointment was not available, patients have been prioritised by the clinician, and those considered urgent moved to a different day this week or early next week,” a spokesperson explained.

The latest communication from the government may serve to further sour relations with civil service unions, who last week blasted the contents of a letter from the States Employment Board (SEB) that sought to bypass unions in seeking employees’ views on the latest pay deal.

The communication described unions as being “far from neutral” and accused them of withholding details of previous ballots among other criticisms.

These accusations were firmly denied by JCSA Prospect President Terry Renouf, who told Express he was “disappointed” with the government’s recent tactics.