JONATHAN LE TOCQ will take charge of pay negotiations with States workers. The Castel deputy, who narrowly missed election to the Policy Council, was elected unanimously as chairman of the Public Sector Remuneration Committee by the States yesterday.

He said he had been approached to take the role only on Tuesday and his wish to think it over had caused a 48-hour delay in the job being filled.

Deputy Le Tocq said he had hopes for a new era of negotiations the with thousands of public servants and an end to bitter and acrimonious wrangling.

‘I hope we can change the bad profile this role has had in the past and be more constructive,’ he said.

‘In a small community, the confrontational negotiations of the past must go and we must develop a more constructive environment. That will take some time to do, but on that basis I was willing to take it up.

‘I didn’t want to see confrontation and the same sorts of show-downs we’ve had.’

Deputy Le Tocq’s other role, on the Treasury and Resources Department, was an ideal link, he said.

‘I hope to try and work myself out of a job. It is a little early to say how things will go, being in a limbo situation after the old Civil Service Board, but we can get a better and more productive and constructive system of pay negotiations.’

The former board had a history of occasional difficult negotiations with public sector groups, some of which have had to be settled at tribunal.

Deputy Le Tocq said he would try to meet local unions and pay negotiators before the next round of talks with the various bodies, which are expected to start later this year.

Chief Minister Laurie Morgan previously admitted that he had found it difficult to find a candidate for the role – some had turned him down because of a conflict of interest and others were worried that they had never been involved in pay negotiations before.

‘I didn’t put somebody forward in desperation,’ he said.