APPOINTING a new team to the States negotiating body, the Public Sector Remuneration Committee, might be necessary in law but what the new members selected this week have accepted is not so much a poisoned chalice but an ultimately pointless one.

Through a combination of narrow mandate, the individuals involved and a lack of independence, the PSRC has become an obstacle – rather than an aid – to improving industrial relations within the public sector.

It cannot be fixed and the Policy Council is shortly to recommend to the States setting up a replacement States Employment Board.

More than a year ago, a respected reviewer looked at the role of the States as an employer and found much to be concerned about, not least the excessively adversarial approach taken by the PSRC.

The new team, led by Deputy Allister Langlois, will doubtless be mindful of the need to avoid the same pitfalls but unfortunately the committee’s reputation is so tarnished with employee groups that it will struggle from day one.

Perhaps more importantly, Dr Graham Robinson’s report on employment found that the position of the PSRC had been compromised by having no independent, non deputies on it and because two members were then also sitting on Treasury and Resources.

That was seen to mean – rightly or wrongly – that the States own pay body wasn’t there to negotiate but to hold down wages.

As new chairman of the PSRC, Deputy Langlois is also a member of T&R so the old concerns will remain, unless he decides to resign from Treasury. Whether that matters given the new members’ caretaker role remains to be seen but it will not help with what is already an uphill task.

Although the Policy Council has yet to report on proposals for a States Employment Board, it is considering a phased introduction of the SEB’s role, which means that the outgoing PSRC does have a function.

What has been lacking to date is a partnership approach to industrial relations and the concept of awards having an element of self-funding through reducing numbers or ‘Spanish practices’.

That’s a ball the new PSRC can certainly start rolling.