Compulsory job cuts loom for States staff

Tuesday 14 July 2015

Around 300 States employees have volunteered for a pay-off to quit their jobs as ministers try to cut down the cost of the public sector – but that total looks likely to fall a long way short of the £70 million savings target.

Compulsory job cuts now look almost inevitable in the public sector for the first time in years.

Even if 300 staff working at the average public sector salary of just over £46,000 took redundancy, the annual saving to the States would be just £14 million – which is just a fraction of the States’ £70 million target.

Treasury Minister Alan Maclean said that besides the redundancies, there would have to be “pay restraint” within the public sector.

He said: “In excess of 300 applications have come in for voluntary redundancy and voluntary severance. They have to be assessed.

“It is a good response, but there is probably more needed. We have always said that this is part of the process.

“Pay restraint is a very important element of that saving.”

The plan has also set aside £20 million to fund the one-off payments that outgoing staff members will receive. The States’ policies say that anyone who takes redundancy is barred from working in the public sector for five years, to avoid people getting payouts and then just moving straight back into another States’ role.