Al Brouard. (0572746)
STATES manual staff negotiators nearly accepted a pay and benefits package that could have been above the cost of living, it emerged yesterday.
The protracted talks are understood to have led to informal offers close to 4.9%, the RPI figure this year’s discussions hinge on.
However, additional benefits including extra dirt money and tool allowances are believed to have taken the value of the offer to above 5%.
And in a new development yesterday afternoon, Public Sector Remuneration Committee chairman Al Brouard revealed that the issue was now heading to an industrial tribunal because a negotiated agreement was no longer possible.
As a result, Deputy Brouard told public service employees that there was nothing to be achieved by going on another strike – still said to be earmarked for the bank holiday weekend.
‘Given that a binding award on this matter is inevitable, the committee fails to see what the employees can hope to achieve by taking any further industrial action, and would ask our staff to be patient and await the outcome of the tribunal,’ he said.
‘Such strike action would not only inconvenience the public but also lose employees money, neither of which the committee wishes to see happen,’ he said.
The Guernsey Press understands that the near-RPI package, which apparently included free eye tests, was very close to being accepted.
In the current economic climate, the offer is seen as a strong one and there were some questions about whether all of the 1,000 public service employees were fully aware of it.
Deputy Brouard refused to comment yesterday on whether a specific offer of 4.9% plus other benefits was made, except to say that all negotiations that went on between the unions were kept private so he did not know where the figures quoted had come from.
It has also emerged that a settlement was nearly reached when Chief Minister Lyndon Trott met union officials two weekends ago.
Unite’s regional industrial organiser Ron Le Cras was unavailable for comment.
Deputy Brouard hoped the industrial tribunal would be carried out as soon as possible for the benefit of staff after around eight months of discussions, which included negotiations being handed over to the industrial disputes officer a month ago. He added: ‘Despite all these months of trying to find a solution those discussions have failed to reach a settlement.
‘The union demand being made by Unite clearly indicates a level of increased reward that the committee believes is unjustified at this time.’
Article posted on 14th August, 2008 - 11.30am
Loading ...
10 Article Comments
States Workers have my full support for too long the Guernsey goverment has pleaded poverty, while it has let services like sewage go ruin and under paid people that do these thankless tasks. The sums we pay in taxes (admittedly very low) have been wasted on consultants saying “this is what the island needs” before the politicians say “we don’t agree with you”. Well now it has come back to bite them.
So I would support any stike perhaps it will make our “wishy-washy” Deputy’s forget that politics should not be a popularity contest but a vocation where you are meant to help peoplw.
How do industrial tribunals work? Are they completely impartial or are they advised to keep within certain boundaries? What comparisons are taken into consideration?
If these public sector workers are compared to salaries available in the private sector then they should surely get an above RPI pay rise - i know cleaners and who are paid £10-£15 an hour in the private sector depending on their work remit. The wealthier sectors of this island no longer want to deal with the humdrum areas of life and can afford someone else to do the tasks they hate.
The skilled public sector workers (plumbers, electricians, carpenters etc also have a justifiable argument for a cost of living pay rise - their compatriots in the private sector probably earn at least three times more.
It is time that the States decision making re: annual pay deals was completely overhauled. It is madness that each sector has to negotiate separately at different times of the year. The island could save itself a tidy sum - which would in turn help fund the cost-of -living rises.
I support the Manual Workers in the plight regarding the frustrating levels of talks with the Policy Council Renumeration Committee.
It is sometimes very easy for some members to sit on their hands and hold out until a third party makes the decision for them. Will the tribunal be impartial or will it be stacked?
There needs to be a realization that the gap is expanding dramatically between the private and public sectors on Guernsey. Living expenses are outstripping salaries for some workers. The States do not do themselves a service by their actions and I feel greatly let down and disparing by their recent apparent failings.
The Public Services Renumeration Commitee should be disbanded immediately, it is blatantly obvious that Deputies Brouard, Brehaut etc do not have the knowledge,experience or inclination to make a fair pay award to the manual workers.
The RPI negotiations should be carried out by a completely impartial group (probably selected from off island)that don’t have hidden agendas like most of our local States members.
Who’s been paying for all these wasted meetings for so called negotiations??
Not surprisingly its us the taxpayers!!
Well said Kevin. Maybe just maybe be when this totally avoidable fiasco is over. The more forward looking Deputies will look at the Public Services Remuneration Committee and question if it has a future. Deputies might read reports and consider what the point of a negotiating committee that will not negotiate, but only say no with the hope of a pay deal imposed on them. If it carries on will this confrontation with its employees become a yearly battle? Is imposed pay deals the answer, or does it cause frustration and bitterness. There is no substitute to sitting around the table and taking. Question; at the recent sewage leak at Belle Greve, who would the householders with effluent lapping around their door been more pleased to see. A States manual worker with equipment, or a Deputy in his wellingtons. The machine known as Guernsey has many thousands of different parts, all essential to its well being. It is the States responsibility to look after them all.
Kevin
From my own experiences of dealing with the previous form of the PRSC, I would add that the paid staff who service the commmittee are equally responsible for the impasse.
Having said that one would expect the politicians’ to make some impact.
Really Lyndon? Is that like the negotiation you were involved with that lost Guernsey it’s 3-12 mile fishing? Or the negotiation you had with Barry Brehaut? Or was it the Jack Straw negotiation on our constitution that was nearly close until Matt Fallaize pulled the rug?
All LT has done is damaged the process and played in to the divisional hands of Ron Le Cras. Ron has won and Trott’s ego has wrecked the process.
The man is a liability.
If my understanding of the Frossard House incident is correct, Deputy Trott tried to proactively make some impact and fell out with Deputy Brehaut as a result. This week’s events are starting to put a slightly different slant on that incident.
Something that not many people are aware of and the media seem to have overlooked is that of the manual workers job evaluation (in other terms a States cost cutting exercise) that took place a few years ago, this resulted in about 120 of them being dropped a pay group ( in real terms £40-£50 per week), those affected face having NO payrise from the beginning of next year until other new employees that have joined their department at the lower rate of pay since the job evaluation took place catch them up, this could take 3 or 4 years - all the more reason to make sure that this years RPI increase is realistic.
Surely the unions must have agreed to the job evaluation? The problem is that the cost of living in Guernsey has been higher than that of the UK for many years - and is rarely a factor in any job evaluation. That differential has to be battled by the unions with the PSRC every year which is why we are in this mess.