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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHIEF MINISTER
BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 19th OCTOBER 2010
Question
Will the Chief Minister inform members what estimate he has of the number of redundancies required by stage 2 of the CSR?
In the light of agreements being sought with public sector workers in the UK over redundancy payments, which cap compulsory payments to 1 month's pay for every year worked up to a maximum of 12 months, and with voluntary schemes capped at 15 or 21 months, will the Chief Minister commit to reaching agreement with employee representatives over redundancy terms, rather than simply imposing revised conditions?
In particular will he agree to the introduction of a differential between compulsory and voluntary schemes to incentivise the take up of voluntary redundancies?
Answer
It is difficult to estimate the number of possible redundancies at this stage as this will depend on other factors such as natural turnover, redeployment etc.
At this stage, departments have estimated a possible 127 posts being surplus to requirements in phase two of the CSR programme (2012 and 2013) but there are two caveats:-
- The figure represents posts and notredundancies
- The effect ofsomeof the proposed restructuring/reorganisation has yettobe evaluated and subject to reviews yet tobecommissioned
Clearly, it will be our objective to seek volunteers for redundancy wherever possible.
We will consult extensively with employee representatives on proposed changes to the redundancy terms and give serious consideration to their views. The current redundancy terms were implemented by the former Establishment Committee in 1995 initially as a short term measure which was an improvement on the basic formal States policy introduced in 1993 as two weeks' pay per year of service for service up to forty years of age and three weeks' pay per year of service after forty years of age. As such they form part of a States Employment Board policy and were not negotiated with employee representatives. It is our clear understanding that they are, therefore, not contractual. As such any changes which fall in the range between the current terms and the formal States policy of 1993 are a matter for decision by the SEB.
I can well understand the view that voluntary redundancy terms should be better than compulsory redundancy terms in order to incentivise volunteers, and the States Employment Board looked closely at this in its deliberations. But the view which prevailed was that, as compulsory redundancy is by far a more difficult and unpleasant experience, the Board could not justify providing inferior terms.