THE public sector workforce is threatening to burst out after years of strict control. The States agreed earlier this year to scrap the staff number limitation policy after nearly 20 years.

It had been criticised for being unwieldy and inflexible.

Now there has been a ‘marked increase’ in requests for more staff. The Law Officers have been granted four full-time posts because of an increasing workload, but the Environment, Health and Social Services and Home departments and the Public Accounts Committee have all put in for more workers. Last year there were no increases to the permanent establishment of the States and some posts were deleted.

The establishment reduced from 4,304 full-time-equivalent posts to 4,280, with most of the jobs going at Public Services and Commerce and Employment.

‘Every new post within the public sector can mean that there is one less person available to work in the wealth-creating private sector,’ said Treasury minister Lyndon Trott.

He said that controlling the public sector would mean that more people could work for wealth-creating companies and pay taxes – an essential element of the new tax strategy.

This would be taken into account in a new staffing policy being developed by his department.

It could report to the States in September. Deputy Trott said that it would have to exert downward pressure to contain staff costs, while offering departments more freedom to operate within agreed cash limits.

‘The overall aim must continue to be to provide efficient services with the minimum number of staff possible,’ he added.

The States suggested in March, when it debated staffing, that it should move to a system based solely on departmental budgetary control. Staff costs account for nearly 50% of annual States spending.