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23.07.17
5 Deputy L.V. Feltham of the Chair, States Employment Board regarding public
sector pay offers (OQ.161/2023)
Will the chair provide an update on the public sector pay groups that have yet to accept the pay offer for 2023?
Connétable A.N. Jehan of St. John (Vice-Chair, States Employment Board - rapporteur):
I can confirm that all public service employee groups have accepted the fully consolidated 7.9 per cent pay award except for nurses, teachers and school leadership groups. We continue our discussions with the nurses with a further meeting scheduled for Friday. Headteachers are currently within a process of conciliation and the teachers' groups have both confirmed to the States Employment Board that they will not currently enter arbitration.
- Deputy L.V. Feltham :
Could the vice-chair confirm what the percentage of the workforce that represents that has not yet settled on pay for 2023?
The Connétable of St. John :
I will have to do the sums on my feet. I will get back to the Deputy so that we get an accurate figure but we have around 1,500 members have not accepted out of a total workforce of 9,000 employees. I will confirm later today.
- Deputy M. Tadier :
I may not be able to recollect the exact words but I seem to remember the deputy chair saying that there was no more money available on the table so what is it exactly that the Government or the S.E.B. (States Employment Board) is negotiating with at the moment?
The Connétable of St. John :
We continue our dialogue. We have, as I have mentioned many times in the Assembly, quarterly meetings with all the representative groups. In fact, it was not part of the pay claim for us to review terms and conditions of teachers, we agreed to do that in one of those quarterly meetings which the work for that is underway. If we can identify savings with those groups then that will create cash but at the moment the 7.9 per cent is the money on the table.
- Deputy M. Tadier :
Just to clarify, any increase in the 7.9 per cent offer he is saying can only come from savings that those staff would have to find within their areas, is that correct?
The Connétable of St. John :
That is not correct. I said we would have to find the savings, I did not say specifically to that group. It is worth noting that the pay is just one part of an employee's package. We offer generous terms and conditions across our area. I have mentioned recently about the one-year's parental leave that we now offer. We offer, in terms of teachers, final salary pension schemes, the only group among our employees to have that, and we offer good terms and conditions and secure employment.
- Deputy R.J. Ward :
Can I ask the chair of S.E.B. will this negotiation include the ubiquitous gainshare concept where money has to be saved in order to get a pay rise? Also, as part of the other areas that he mentioned, the one year's leave, will he confirm that that is unpaid parental leave?
The Connétable of St. John :
The parental leave is costing us the equivalent of 2.8 per cent on our teachers' salaries because we have to pay people to cover those shifts. We pay for some of the leave, not for the full year obviously, so there is a cost to that. The terms and conditions review was agreed as part of a 2019 pay deal. We were made aware of that in May and we agreed to set to work on that as soon as possible.
- Deputy R.J. Ward :
In a written question I received an answer to today, the Education Department is spending £313,830 since January on U.K. supply staff. Does the vice-chair believe that this is a use of money that could be stopped with a proper pay rise and this dispute could be ended?
The Connétable of St. John :
We are looking at right across government employees to reduce the amount of people we have on short-term contracts, whether they be based locally or based in other jurisdictions. The shortage of S.T.E.M. (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) teachers is not just a local issue, it is a national issue, and we are working hard to try and find resolutions in that area.
- Deputy L.V. Feltham :
Given the significant percentage of the workforce that has yet to settle, and given that they are incredibly important front line workers, what lessons have been learned from this negotiation this year and what changes will be made next year, given that we are now into the sixth month of protracted negotiations for 2023?
The Connétable of St. John :
We are looking at putting into place a pay strategy for multiple years but we are looking first of all to resolve this dispute, which is in its seventh month of discussion unfortunately. We are always learning lessons but in my experience negotiation is a 2-way street and at the moment we have not been able to convince our colleagues to reduce their initial demands of over 15 per cent.