WHETHER the conclusions of the tribunal of inquiry into the firefighters’ dispute are right or wrong, one thing is beyond doubt.

It’s not the result those calling for the tribunal were looking for.

The driving force for setting up the inquiry was a feeling among some deputies that the Chief Minister/Policy Council/Shadow Emergency Powers Authority had overstepped the mark. Had they taken onto themselves powers that didn’t exist and undermined the established States negotiating procedure?

For a minority of the concerned politicians there was also a sub-text of seeking to ‘punish the guilty’. Remember the triumphant claim made in the States members’ room that ‘we’ve got him now’ after the States agreed to set up the tribunal.

Putting aside the personality politics which seem to underlie everything which goes on in the States these days, we need to look at the substance of the report and its proposals.

It is highly critical of the rigidity of the PSRC and its ‘one-size-fits-all approach’. I think there is some validity to that claim and it’s a view I have always held. It’s not altogether their fault but is partly a result of their wide-ranging responsibility and the perceived dangers of setting precedents.

The same criticism was levelled at its predecessor, the Civil Service Board. Indeed, I made that criticism myself when supporting a radical change to independent public sector pay review bodies – despite being a member of CSB at the time.

To be fair to both CSB and PSRC they were given a stinker of a job to do, easily criticised but with few plaudits to be gained. Whatever their imperfections there is little doubt that if they hadn’t been willing to take on the role of the tough guys of the Guernsey States then our finances would be in a worse state today.

It’s so easy to say that nurses, teachers, police officers and firefighters should be paid more. Both for the public and for employing committees struggling with recruitment, it’s much harder to keep a lid on Guernsey’s biggest area of expenditure – public sector pay.

I have no doubt that in some specific circumstances there should have been more flexibility but in other cases someone has to be willing to say no and take the flak.

Would Policy Council be better at that role? I doubt it. Firstly they would, as the tribunal suggests, have to delegate the work to professional negotiators.

In some ways that is no bad thing but it is liable to inflame the unions. Remember their anger at having to deal with the paid negotiators for PSRC instead of always meeting Al Brouard?

I really doubt if the political members of Policy Council would then be able to show the discipline not to interfere on an ongoing basis instead of sticking to the high-level policy. After all, the chief minister couldn’t resist getting involved personally, with cosy meetings with Ron Le Cras, even when public sector pay didn’t come under the Policy Council.

So, let’s assume that the politicians at P.C. would be actively involved in each round of pay negotiations. Would they then be able to take a corporate view, putting aside their narrow departmental considerations? Of course that is what one would hope but it flies in the face of the evidence so far.

A broader concern is that this proposal from a largely non-local review body suggests a very UK solution to a Guernsey problem. Centralise power and then centralise it some more. Give all the real meaningful decisions to a handful of deputies at the centre and let the rest just hold them to account.

It certainly shouldn’t be rejected just because its authors are from the other side of the Channel but the implications should be well understood. The logical conclusion is a cabinet system, which really works well only within the discipline of party politics.

So what should the findings have been?

Well, firstly there is no doubt that ‘the centre’/PSD did overstep their powers – even pretending that a £4,000 payment wasn’t remuneration to justify their actions. Whether that breach was justified is a subjective judgement call. Some will claim any action which reopened the airport was valid. Others, that giving in to blackmail set a truly awful precedent.

Looking forward, I hope the debate isn’t just over whether the PSRC or the P.C. should do the job. There’s a better alternative. Set up one or more Independent Public Sector Pay

Review Bodies.