Time runs out for agreement on public sector pay deal

Talks between the States and unions will continue beyond the end of the current three-year pay deal on 31 December.

Policy & Resources’ employment lead John Gollop warned yesterday that ‘current financial challenges’ were influencing negotiations which started when several unions representing thousands of employees submitted claims for above-inflation wage rises.

‘While we had hoped a new agreement would be in place by the end of the year, regrettably we have run out of time to achieve that,’ said Deputy Gollop.

‘The committee is keen to reach agreement with unions and staff groups and would like to finalise the deal in the next month or so, but the exact time scale for resolution is not entirely within its control.

‘However, once deals are agreed, staff will receive any uplift backdated to 1 January 2025.’

While discussions are continuing with various unions, some pay groups are currently preparing to ballot members on pay offers which have not been disclosed.

The previous P&R, which was ousted in a no confidence vote exactly one year ago today, took the unusual steps of negotiating a multi-year pay agreement for 2022-24 and applying it to every pay group without variation. That deal provided public sector workers with increases of 5% plus £500 in 2022, 7% last year, and 5.8% at the start of this year, which cumulatively resulted in States employees’ pay being adjusted almost exactly in line with changes in the cost of living over the past three years.

Deputy Gollop said the current P&R was still ‘open to a multi-year agreement’ from 2025 onwards and that the idea of repeating its predecessor’s single across-the-board settlement for all pay groups was ‘a matter that will be resolved around the negotiating table’. In October, P&R estimated that the States would run a deficit of £16m. next year, after one-off capital spending was taken into account. But that was before the Assembly left a hole of about £27m. in the 2025 budget when it rejected a temporary 2p increase in income tax, a move P&R hopes to address in an emergency mini-Budget early in the new year.

The States has estimated that inflation will be about 4% throughout next year.

Nurses and other health workers have asked the States for a pay rise of inflation plus 3% from January. It is understood that civil servants have made a similar claim. Unions representing teachers have claimed that pay has fallen in real terms in recent years and took their previous claim to a tribunal.

‘P&R is broadly satisfied with the way the pay discussions are going,’ said Deputy Gollop.

‘However, the well-publicised and understood current financial challenges is clearly a factor in negotiations, despite our willingness to listen and value our staff.’