A final backing for pay deal
THE inherent generosity of the Policy & Resources Committee’s pay offer for 2022, 2023 and 2024, at a tough time for public finances, received official validation yesterday when an industrial tribunal awarded it to teachers who were seeking RPI-plus deals instead.
We have consistently said that, in the current climate, particularly for public finances, the three-year deal was bordering on largesse, particularly compared to life across much of the private sector.
We can see why Policy & Resources sought a longer-term solution to effectively remove the pain of pay talks for more or less the rest of this States’ term. And generosity would have to be key to its broad, and fairly rapid, acceptance across much of the States.
One of the committee’s arguments, alongside the fact that the deal was ‘affordable’, was that it created a degree of stability and certainty in public finances – an approach backed by the tribunal as ‘legitimate and justifiable’. Most of the States’ workforce signed up pretty quickly.
It’s been a difficult period. When the rate of inflation has been almost irrelevant, pay talks tend to be much easier. What’s 1% between ‘friends’?
The States, and islanders, should be heartened to also see today that inflation appears to have peaked on its current cycle. Islanders will want to see that trend continue, along with a limit to such long-term deals.