States pays £1m. to make just 10 staff redundant

The member of staff with the largest redundancy package walked away with £287,000.

The average redundancy payment made since 2018 has cost taxpayers about £98,500.

This was a marked increase on payments made in 2016 and 2017 – when a total of seven staff were made redundant, at an average cost of less than £5,000.

P&R president Peter Ferbrache pledged that his committee would discuss redundancy terms soon – at least for new States employees.

‘P&R has committed to reviewing terms and conditions for new employees. The redundancy package is a relevant issue being considered as part of that and the committee intends to discuss it at the soonest practical opportunity,’ he said.

Staff made compulsorily redundant by the States currently have a right to severance payments worth up to 100 weeks’ pay. They are entitled to five weeks’ pay for each year of continuous service, up to a maximum of 20 years.

Simon Vermeulen claimed recently that generous redundancy terms could be discouraging the States from removing unnecessary staff posts. Yesterday, commenting on the new figures, he said he was not surprised by the number and cost of redundancies revealed for the past few years.

‘I am disappointed to see these figures, but it bears out the concerns I raised previously about redundancy pay levels,’ he said.

‘Wherever I look, whether at redundancy payments, non-executive directors’ payments, bonuses or [defined benefit] pensions, it is quite clear that within the States we are paying far beyond the going rates of the commercial world.

‘We are a small island with a relatively small population of 63,000, not 300m., and we have to get a grip on that reality.’

P&R was asked how many staff receiving redundancy payments had subsequently been re-hired but the committee said it was ‘not able to provide an exact answer to this question’.

Deputy Vermeulen said Deputy Ferbrache’s P&R was trying to resolve a problem which it inherited.

‘I understand P&R is currently reviewing the situation, which has existed for far too long now. It’s a legacy issue if ever there was one,’ he said.

‘P&R has my full support. I have full confidence in the team.’

John Dyke, a Guernsey Party colleague of Deputy Vermeulen, said he had been arguing for reform for years.

‘We really aren’t doing very well on this, are we? I have been banging on about costs until I’m blue in the face,’ said Deputy Dyke.

‘I think the argument may be cutting through.’

P&R was asked for the number and cost of redundancies since 2008, but said reliable data was available only from 2016 onwards.

It insisted that redundancies ultimately resulted in savings, despite any initial costs.

‘Redundancy relates to the post being removed from the organisational structure, which results in savings over time,’ said the committee.

‘It is always the priority to seek to redeploy and, as such, redundancies are rare. The low numbers illustrate that fact, given the organisation employs in excess of 5,000 people.

‘When voluntary severance is used, there is always a clause included which prohibits the employee from applying to re-join the organisation for a set period of time.’

The total cost for 17 redundancies made since 2016 was £1,018,148.