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STATES OF JERSEY
PROPOSED GOVERNMENT PLAN 2024 - 2027 (P.72/2023): TWENTIETH AMENDMENT (P.72/2023 AMD.(20)) – COMMENTS
Presented to the States on 8th December 2023 by the Council of Ministers
STATES GREFFE
2023 P.72 Amd.(20) Com.
COMMENTS
The Council of Ministers recognises the intention of Deputy Curtis to increase funding available to the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department (CYPES) for front line staff in Education. This Amendment to the Government Plan 2024 references the current teachers’ strikes and the Deputy suggests that the additional funding of £2m for all of the teaching workforce would bring pay back in line with the historical cost of living. It is important to note that the issue of teachers pay does not sit with CYPES, it sits with the States Employment Board.
Work has been ongoing throughout 2023 to agree teacher staff pay. Recent industrial action has brought this into focus. The 7.9% consolidated 2023 pay award was implemented and paid to Teachers, this was as a result of the NEU and NASUWT refusing to enter into binding arbitration. The SEB confirmed a ‘failure to agree’ and back dated the pay award in the hope of resolving the dispute with a further commitment to progress discussions and agree a multi-year pay package for 2024-26. A further commitment was made by the SEB for officers from Employee Relations and CYPES to work in partnership with the Unions and review teacher workload and terms and conditions. The below offer was made to the NEU and the NASUWT. The NEU ballot closed on the 06 December 2023. The pay offer was rejected by the NEU. The NASUWT ballot remains open until 15 December 2023.
The Employer held negotiation meetings with the NEU and NASUWT on the 9th, 20th, 21st and 30th November 2023 before making a formal pay offer for a three-year deal, which is detailed below:
• 2024 = 8% consolidated
• 2025 = a guarantee of September RPI – consolidated
• 2026 = a guarantee of September RPI - consolidated
• A one-off payment of £1,000 – non-consolidated for 2024
This has been offered to Teachers who were in employment on the 31 December 2023 (pro rata) on acceptance of the above offer. In addition, the Employer has requested a guarantee of 14 calendar days’ written notice of any future industrial action prior to any action being taken. The employer has confirmed that if this offer is accepted, then the £1,000 will be paid on the last working day of January 2024. A pro-rata payment will be made to Supply Teachers employed on the 31 December 2023 and who have worked as a Supply Teacher within the last 12 weeks up to the 01 December 2023.
Costings
The 2023 7.9% consolidated pay award gives a total cost to GoJ of £6.2 million including the additional pension and soc sec employer costs.
The proposed 8% consolidated pay award gives a total cost for GoJ of £6.3 million including the additional pension and soc sec costs.
The proposed £1k non-consolidated pay award gives a total cost to GoJ of £1.1m.
There were no Primary Teaching vacancies in September 2023 and limited secondary school vacancies.
The States Employment Board (SEB) requested that a full Terms and Conditions review is undertaken for Teachers and this work has begun with several meetings already
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P.72/2023 Amd.(20) Com.
having taken place. As a priority SEB committed to review workload and ‘rarely cover’ in the New Year. All teaching unions have agreed to participate in this review. This work is expected to improve working conditions across the profession and will address the concerns raised in the Deputy ’s amendment.
At this time it would not be appropriate to disrupt this process by accepting this amendment. This amendment requires funding to be allocated from another department, not linked to teaching staff pay. There is no basis for funding to be redirected from Modernisation & Digital (M&D to support teaching staff pay.
Impact on public service IT/digital expenditure
Reducing the Modernisation & Digital budget by an additional £2m would result in the Government being unable to deliver effective and resilient IT services to front-
line departments; and unable to improve public services by using digital to make services more efficient, effective and better for Islanders.
M&D would need to enact a range of severe measures that would reduce the capacity to run and maintain IT services, including the provision of front-line applications across all departments and essential digital channels used by Islanders, which would directly impact the delivery of key public services. The capacity to support public service technology users when there are problems, deliver digital change programmes, manage cyber security risks and maintain enterprise-wide back-office systems, would also be significantly reduced.
Comment under Standing Order 37A
[Presentation of comment relating to a proposition]
These comments were submitted to the Greffier after noon on the penultimate working day before the day the meeting at which the proposition is to be debated. The delay in submission is due to the need to conclude internal review procedures and the volume of government plan business.