High-earning States managers targeted for redundancy

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Chief Minister Ian Gorst has put “senior, high-salaried” managers in the firing line as he starts the job of cutting £60 million from the public sector staff bill.

The 195 States employees earning more than £100,000 per year in salaries, benefits and pension contributions will be targeted as ministers try to remove layers of management from the States bureaucracy.

Around one in 42 States employees earns over the £100,000 threshold, and ministers believe that they can get rid of some of their most expensive staff to balance the books.

The cuts from the £1 million-per-day States workforce are part of a package of measures to fill a predicted £130 million deficit by 2019 – along with cuts to department budgets and a new £35 million 'health charge' for Islanders.

A round of voluntary redundancies has been proposed and ministers are refusing to rule out compulsory redundancies, as they seek to balance the books. And yesterday in the States, Senator Gorst said that the cuts would target some of the States’ top earners.

In response to questions from Deputy Geoff Southern in the States yesterday, Senator Gorst said: “Each year in the public service something like 550 posts are turned over, from retirees or contracts stopping or natural change. It is absolutely appropriate that we look at our services, reconfigure them and look at efficiencies.

“We are looking across departments, and it is extremely important if we are to ‘de-layer’ managers in the way that ministers wish to do, that duplication of administration and management functions are rightly removed.

“We’re looking at ‘de-layering’ managers and looking right across the organisation in a way that has not happened before, so that we do not need so many senior, high-salaried positions. That is going to release money for front-line staff.”