10 August 2018
The States of Jersey has made two-year pay offers for 2018 and 2019 to the different pay bargaining groups representing the majority of its 6,800 employees.
The offers, which will be backdated to January, range from zero for employees earning £100,000 or more, to an average of 6.6% for nurses and midwives, 7.0% for doctors and 7.9% for manual workers, over the two years. The four groups which accepted the Workforce Modernisation offer receive an average of 10.72% over two years.
For several groups, the offers include a combination of consolidated (pensionable and added to base salary) and non-consolidated (non-pensionable cash payments that are not added to base salary).
The States has taken a number of issues into account in structuring the pay offers, including:
- the need to address issues of equal pay for work of equal value between employee groups
- the limited budget available to fund the pay offers
- pay comparability with the local and UK market.
In March, Chief Executive Charlie Parker announced that the States would negotiate two-year deals for all pay groups (except those who had accepted the Workforce Modernisation offer) to provide more certainty about pay. At the same time, he announced a two-year pay freeze for all employees earning £100,000 or more.
In June, we tabled an offer to nurses and midwives that meant increases of between 0.5% and 13.3% in 2018, depending on an individual's current job grade (average 4.5%); and between 0.75% and 2.5% in 2019 (average 2.1%).
The offers on basic pay, which have been tabled to trade union representatives, are as follows:
| 2018 | | 2019 | | 2018 and 2019 Total |
Consolidated % | Non-consolidated % | Consolidated % | Non-consolidated % | |
| Ambulance Service, Family Support Workers, Residential Child Care Officers, Youth Service (the four groups that accepted the Workforce Modernisation offer) |
6.88 average | - | 3.84 average | - | 10.72 average |
| Manual and Energy from Waste workers |
| 4.6 | - | 3.3 | - | 7.9 |
| Doctors |
| 3.0 | - | 4.0 | 0 | 7.0 |
| Nurses and Midwives | |
4.5 average | - | 2.1 average | - | 6.6 average |
| Head Teachers, Deputy Head Teachers, Teachers and Lecturers |
| 2.0 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 6.1 |
| Uniformed Services (Fire, Police and Prison officers) |
| 2.0 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 6.1 |
| Civil Servants |
| 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 4.1 |
| Employees earning £100,000+ |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Assistant Chief Minister, Connétable Christopher Taylor, said: "The pay offers, which were approved by the States Employment Board, represent a considerable increase in the States pay bill and are the most that we can afford.
"While we fully recognise the need to help employees with the rising cost of living, we also recognise our duty to islanders to contain the cost of the public sector. These pay offers are worth the equivalent of £700 from every taxpaying Jersey household and business.
"This further underlines why we need to modernise our public services, so we can cut inefficiency and waste and focus public spending on essential frontline services and the staff who run them. We need to reduce the cost of running government, or there could be financial pressure to increase taxes."
States of Jersey Chief Executive, Charlie Parker, said: "These pay offers seek to achieve the best deal possible, tackling entrenched equal pay issues and raising the incomes of the lowest-paid employee groups, while keeping within the limited budget allowed under the MTFP2 settlement.
"Our priority is to target the biggest pay rises at nurses, midwives, low-paid manual workers and colleagues in uniformed services, and that is where we have focused our offer.
"We also understand the impacts on many colleagues of the rising cost of living, and by offering a combination of consolidated and non-consolidated pay, we can offer more in cash terms over the next two years, to help with those living costs, than if we only offered a consolidated pay increase."
Overall, these pay increases will cost £33.6 million over the two years, on top of the current £359 million pay budget. States of Jersey employees also benefit from employer contributions worth 16% of salary into their pension fund.
gov.je