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Lodged au Greffe on 21st January 2003 by Deputy T.J. Le Main of St. Helier
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STATES OF JERSEY
STATES GREFFE
150 2002 P.238 Amd.
Price code: A
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In sub-paragraph (a)(i) of the proposition for the figure "£41,000" substitute the figure "£36,974" and in sub-paragraph (a) (iii) for the words "on 1st January 2004" substitute the words "with effect from 1st January 2003".
DEPUTY T.J. LE MAIN OF ST. HELIER
Report
I support fully the principle that members working full-time in their rôle as States members should be remunerated accordingly and that no member should be financially disadvantaged, and I agree that all members should be able, through their membership of this Assembly, to claim the salary/remuneration and that other income should be discounted – the remuneration is for work undertaken as a member of this Assembly.
I am aware that there will be members who for one reason or another will not want to claim their remuneration and that will be their right. It is of worry that whilst many of us are desperately trying to find savings within our Committees, which will affect the services we provide to the people of Jersey, we propose to increase members' remuneration by nearly 10% without carefully taking into consideration productivity and or the amount that they will do. I do not need reminding that members who may at present not have a vast amount of work will be playing the role of scrutinising the work of Presidents/Ministries/Committees but we are not yet in that position to proceed, no employer would in their right mind in this difficult trading and economic climate increase salaries to a workforce less productive than previous, and in our case being grossly overstaffed with members. We will be having a by-election to replace ex-Senator Bailhache and yet there will be no work for he or she to do, no Committee vacancies etc. and the States have agreed to follow the Clothier recommendations to reduce Committees and membership, had the membership been reduced by 10 then this increase would have more credibility.
I have a great worry that pay negotiations are not concluded, or even near to being so, and to ask our employees to be more efficient with possible job losses with Committees having amalgamated is an insult to those in pay negotiations – how can we increase our remuneration by 10% at this time with a surplus of members and with public sector pay sector negotiations not concluded? To go with this proposal at this time is unwarranted and we should be setting an example by making sure that the electorate are getting value for money from their elected members.
The recently announced RPI figure of 4.9% means that the figure of £36,974 would increase from 1st January 2003 to approximately £38,785.
There are no manpower implications arising from this proposition and the financial saving is apparent.