Union fails to read the room
IN THE UK, it is calculated that more than a fifth of all government spending goes on pay. In Guernsey that figure is more like a third. So it’s all the more important that the taxpaying population feels it is getting value for money from public sector pay deals.
In the UK the Labour government has been juggling pay pressure from unions. Late last year the government made a 2.8% offer to millions of public sector workers including teachers, NHS staff and senior civil servants, in an environment where inflation is expected to average 2.6% over the year.
Meanwhile, with headline inflation at June 2024 at 5.3%, but continuing to fall steadily, the union representing Guernsey civil servants recommended the rejection of what seems to be, in the circumstances, a very generous 5%, branding it as ‘below inflation’.
Such a move completely fails to read the room on the island’s public finances. The union could, should, have encouraged some 1,500 sensible staff to take a reasonable view on the offer which would take their combined pay upwards of £110m. a year.
Talk about being ‘starved into acceptance’ is the talk of the picket line of the 1970s, not the Guernsey of today, where the public sector, once considered relatively lowly-paid, and buoyed by the final salary pension scheme, is now seen by most as a generous employer.
The union claim for ‘fundamental change’ in pay is out of kilter, especially at a time where structural reform is being identified as being so necessary in the public sector.