Job losses - Chief Minister’s response

Friday 01 July 2016

Jersey’s Chief Minister has defended job losses which could see up to 250 public sector workers forced into redundancy in the next four years.

Job losses in Jersey have been kept to a bare minimum says Chief Minister Ian Gorst, who insists that 250 is the “top line figure” - and the actual number of compulsory redundancies could be less.

The union Unite - which represents many public sector workers - have described the losses as “yet another attack on working men and women” and has vowed to fight the plans announced in yesterday’s Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) by the States of Jersey. 

In order to make essential savings, Chief Minister Gorst said cuts in the public sector must be made, but shall be done as “carefully” as possible and kept to a “minimum.”

He revealed that 160 public sector employees have already taken voluntary redundancy.    

He said: “We have been very clear that we need to transform the way we deliver services to the public and some of that will be by out-sourcing in the future as that will be more effective and ultimately cheaper. 

“At the same time we have been managing recruitment in a different way so that when somebody has left we have been asking whether that person needs to be replaced or not. 

“We have said from the very start that we might have to make compulsory redundancies but we have been trying to keep that to a minimum. 

“We have already seen 160 people take voluntary redundancy and there are much fewer people now who may have to take compulsory redundancy because of the efforts we have made. At the same time we recognise that anyone who is made redundant, it affects them, it affects their family and that’s why we have put millions of pounds into schemes to get them back into work. We are maintaining that, in order for former staff to be able to get into other work. 

“We have got to do it carefully and with our staff in mind and try to work with them. In the last few years we have taken on a lot of extra people and the head count number has increased. What we are saying is that can’t continue into the future if we are seeking to get the costs of government under control. Some of that means we might not be able to employ all the people that we currently have, but we are doing that carefully and in conjunction with them.”

Nick Corbel, of the Unite union, says the cuts will affect workers, often low paid employees. 

“It is yet another attack on working men and women and many of them will have nowhere to go. It has happened time and time again and it now just regarded as the norm,” he said.

The union has vowed to fight the cuts with the support of States of Jersey members when the MTFP is discussed in September.