States reveal details of two-year pay deal

Friday 10 August 2018

Under deals being put forward by the States, some workers are to get almost an 11% pay rise over the next two years whilst others will see their pay frozen.

Those who are getting the biggest rise are the four groups that have accepted the Workforce Modernisation offer. They include the Ambulance Service, Family Support Workers, Residential Child Care Officers, and the Youth Service. They’ll be getting an average rise of 10.8%.

Manual workers will get 7.9%, doctors 7%, nurses and midwives 6.6%, and civil servants 4.1%. But, staff earning more than £100,000 are having their wages frozen.

Pictured: Table showing the latest pay deal being offered to States workers.

States of Jersey Chief Executive, Charlie Parker, said: “These pay offers seek to achieve the best deal possible, tackling entrenched equal pay issues and raising the incomes of the lowest-paid employee groups, while keeping within the limited budget allowed under the MTFP2 settlement. 

“Our priority is to target the biggest pay rises at nurses, midwives, low-paid manual workers and colleagues in uniformed services, and that is where we have focused our offer. 

“We also understand the impacts on many colleagues of the rising cost of living, and by offering a combination of consolidated and non-consolidated pay, we can offer more in cash terms over the next two years, to help with those living costs, than if we only offered a consolidated pay increase.“

Assistant Chief Minister, Connétable Christopher Taylor, said: “The pay offers, which were approved by the States Employment Board, represent a considerable increase in the States pay bill and are the most that we can afford. 

“While we fully recognise the need to help employees with the rising cost of living, we also recognise our duty to islanders to contain the cost of the public sector. These pay offers are worth the equivalent of £700 from every taxpaying Jersey household and business. 

“This further underlines why we need to modernise our public services, so we can cut inefficiency and waste and focus public spending on essential frontline services and the staff who run them. We need to reduce the cost of running government, or there could be financial pressure to increase taxes.”

The pay increases will cost £33.6 million over the two years, on top of the current £359 million pay budget. States of Jersey employees also benefit from employer contributions worth 16% of salary into their pension fund.