Policy & Resources claimed that approach had ‘worked well’ in recent years and had been accepted by employee groups. The senior committee’s resources lead, Yvonne Burford, said it would consider revising its approach if a formal request was received from unions, after public calls from Unite for more political involvement in the next round of pay talks, but it currently had no plans to return to the days of politicians leading negotiations on behalf of the States.
‘It has always been possible for unions to request a member of P&R to be present for some or all of the pay negotiations,’ said Deputy Burford.
‘During the 2025 and 2026 pay talks, the concept of an officer-led negotiation process was generally welcomed, or at the very least no objections were raised. Since that time, no union has made any formal representation to either officers or P&R to request a member specifically to attend. Should the committee receive such a request, we would of course consider it. Our committee is satisfied that talks are led at officer level but remain open to being more directly involved in pay negotiation meetings where it is considered necessary. The committee, as employer, provides direction and oversight to senior officers who are directly involved in the negotiations on the committee’s behalf, and we receive comprehensive feedback and updates.’
P&R is under pressure to get on with the latest round of pay talks, with more than 5,000 States employees due to come to the end of their current deal at the end of the year. Claims for 2027 were submitted by some employee groups months ago.
Although it has not been unusual for recent rounds of talks to start in the autumn or winter, unions fear a repeat of this year, which started without a deal for more than a third of public sector workers.
The senior committee acknowledged yesterday that it had not yet discussed its approach to pay talks despite previously saying it expected them to start in April and then in July.
‘Our committee is due shortly to consider our approach to 2027 pay talks,’ said Deputy Burford.
‘There have been no official communications to date [with employee groups] although officers have been fielding the occasional question from unions directly.’
Most States employees received a 5% increase in 2025 and a 3.7% increase this year, although there were some variations in the latter figure. Based on the RPIX figure used by the States, annual inflation was 4.3% at the end of June, which is the normal reference point for most pay negotiations. States officials were initially expecting inflation to be lower in 2026 and P&R is under a direction to limit spending increases in 2027 to RPIX minus 1%.
Next month the senior committee must publish a draft 2027 budget, with pay costs expected to amount to about 50% of total public sector expenditure, but it would not be drawn yesterday on whether unions would be asked to accept pay adjustments in line with or below inflation.
‘We haven’t come to a formal position on this yet and in any event it would discourteous to unions and staff to discuss it via the media prior to opening talks with unions,’ said Deputy Burford.