Crisis talks planned to avert public sector pay strike

Wednesday 24 October 2018

Senior States negotiators will be holding last ditch talks with unions representing government workers to try and resolve an impasse over the controversial “final offer" pay deal ahead of this week’s strike action ballot.

The last-minute meeting between the States Employment Board and the unions is scheduled for tomorrow – just one day ahead of Friday's industrial action ballot.

The pay deal, which was revealed over the summer, involves a mixture of one-off bonuses and recurring pay 'rises' adjusted across different services, has been the cause of much controversy as thousands of public sector workers have rejected the ‘rises’ – most of which actually fall below the rate of inflation.

Despite Chief Executive Charlie Parker’s ultimatum to all States workers that they must accept the pay deal or it will be imposed upon them, Chairman of the Employment Board Senator Tracey Vallois suggested in the States that there may be more flexibility on 2018/19 pay awards than previously thought as the threat of industrial action becomes more serious. 

Pictured: Senator Tracey Vallois, who is the Chairman of the States Employment Board, announced that the Board will be meeting with unions tomorrow.

Answering a question in the States Assembly from Deputy Mike Higgins yesterday, Senator Vallois said that the Employment Board were meeting with the public sector unions “to discuss where we are now with regards to that negotiating position and listen to what the unions have to say directly… rather than through officers.”

She also said that the Board “are looking at whether our pay offers can be restructured to make them more acceptable to staff and unions”.

This appears to contrast with Mr Parker’s warning to all public workers that “There is no more money”- a point raised by Deputy Geoff Southern who asked the Board Chairman whether, in light of this, any discussions are therefore “redundant."

Pictured: States Chief Executive Charlie Parker wrote to all public sector employees, warning them that they should accept the offer or have it imposed upon them.

In response, Senator Vallois said: “It is true that we have to recognise that we have a budget. At the moment with the current pay awards that have been put forward [the budget] is £33.6million - £14.9million of which is unfunded at this point in time.” 

However, the Chairman also said that as the negotiations regarding pay will surface every year: “we need to start at a point where we’re all on the same level and understand each other.”

This news comes amid rising tension over public sector pay kickstarted by the Jersey branch of the Royal College of Nursing and JCSA, the island’s civil servants union, overwhelmingly rejecting the pay offer proposals – with 95% of workers in both unions voting against accepting the deal.

Pictured: 95% of nurses balloted rejected the pay offer and the same proportion of civil servants followed suit in a mass rejection of the proposals.

Meanwhile, the President of the Jersey National Education Union Brendan Carolan, has emailed all States Members with his response to each of the claims made in Mr Parker's email to States employees which condemned the pay rises offered to the low-paid manual workers as a "token bribe" to keep them out of the dispute and that the overall offer merely "pays lip service" to an ethos that appreciates the public sector.

Mr Carolan writes: "...the work ethic of the very best public servants... is no longer cherished and appreciated. We have sadly arrived at the point where we are actually exploiting these qualities. A society that disregards and disrespects these key workers damages its very fabric and foundations irrevocably."

The rally of all public sector workers was due to take place on 17 October at Hautlieu School but it was pushed back after the States said a meeting discussing industrial action could not take place in a public building, but sources told Express that the cancellation came after States officials were denied a slot to speak at the event. 

Therefore, the rally will now be taking place on Thursday, with the industrial action ballot planned for Friday.