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2.1 Connétable M.P.S. Le Troquer of St. Martin of the Chief Minister regarding
Will the Chief Minister detail the reasons for the considerable differences in salary ranges being advertised for public sector positions, with some recent examples indicating a £30,000 difference between the minimum and maximum salary available, another with a £20,000 range and another at over £10,000 difference?
Senator I.J. Gorst (The Chief Minister):
There are sometimes considerable differences in the advertised salary ranges for public sector positions because the employer does not wish to limit the number or type of people who might apply for the posts on offer. A difference between the minimum and maximum salary available will take into consideration the need to attract either a candidate who can grow into the position and develop the necessary experience, knowledge and skills working in the role while also not putting off a candidate who has the requisite skills already to undertake the role successfully.
- The Connétable of St. Martin :
Can the Chief Minister advise the Assembly who decides the grade or indeed the commencement salary to be offered to the successful candidate following the interview?
[9:45]
Senator I.J. Gorst :
That will be, as I tried to indicate, decided in line with the experience and skills that the person who is offered the job has and therefore they will be slotted into what is, some might say, a rather structured salary banding range.
- Deputy R.G. Le Hérissier of St. Saviour :
Would the Chief Minister acknowledge that some of the salary ranges are attempts to emulate business sector practice without the disciplines of the business sector?
Senator I.J. Gorst :
Not in this instance, no I would not. Sometimes that does happen and it is something that we must guard against. But, for example, the first difference which the Connétable raised was to do with a consultant and it quite clearly, while £30,000 seems a large differential, it could be a newly-qualified specialist which is appropriate to appoint to the job or it could be a specialist which has been in post for 10 years, fully qualified and experienced and therefore the banding has to allow for either of those 2 eventualities.
- Deputy M.R. Higgins of St. Helier :
Does the Chief Minister think that there should be a relationship between the highest and lowest salaries and that salaries of senior civil servants should not exceed over a certain figure because of the disproportionate higher salaries?
Senator I.J. Gorst :
While it is in interesting question, I am not sure it arises out of this question, which is a salary band for a sole job. Having said that, of course, there has been much publicity around the salary ranges for senior staff members and the States Employment Board is undertaking a piece of work to ensure that the salaries at the highest levels are appropriate, but also that there is a proper performance management process in place to ensure that where salaries which might be considered to be large are offered, they are appropriately monitored, reviewed and to ensure that the taxpayer is getting good value for money.
- Deputy R.G. Le Hérissier:
Given the public concern and given the recent U.K. (United Kingdom) move to reduce the numbers of exceptionally high salary earners in local government, because of the feeling that the results were never obtained that were promised. Would the Chief Minister outline how many of the salaries have indeed been revised as a result of this intensive monitoring to which he has just referred?
Senator I.J. Gorst :
I did not refer to intensive monitoring; I referred to a piece of work the States Employment Board has instructed to be undertaken. Once that has been undertaken then I will be in a position to answer his question more fully.
- Deputy T.M. Pitman of St. Helier :
Is the Chief Minister aware of research carried out by everyone's favourite economist, Ha-Joon Chang, that demonstrate that inflated salaries do not lead to better performance and is that considered when we have these quite wide differences on salary bands?
Senator I.J. Gorst :
As I said in answer to an earlier question, performance monitoring is absolutely critical. There is no point appointing someone to a job and offering a large salary if there is no way of monitoring to ensure that the performance that is expected for that salary is being delivered.