PUBLIC SECTOR
Union reaction to civil service pay proposals
A controversial new shake-up of civil service pay is due to come into effect by April 2002. A recent issue of the Pay and Benefits Bulletin looked at how the three main unions representing civil servants have reacted to the government's far-reaching proposals.
New proposals on performance pay for state employees
Despite some unease over the suitability and efficacy of performance pay in the public sector, the Labour government, like its Conservative predecessor, appears to have whole-heartedly embraced this concept for state workers.
Controversial new initiatives have been unveiled over the past year that extend individual performance pay to teachers (take a look at the current state of play at www.e-reward.co.uk/content/newsdoc99.htm), while systems based largely on team rewards lie at the heart of recommendations for parts of the health service and civil service.
IRS talks to the unions
The five-page report in the Pay and Benefits Bulletin is based on interviews carried out by pay analysts at Industrial Relations Services with three leading union officials representing civil servants:
Alan Churchard, deputy general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)
Garry Graham, negotiator for the First Division Association (FDA)
Jenny Thurston, deputy general secretary of the Institution of Professional, Managers and Specialists (IPMS).
Civil service pay
Individual performance-related pay does not get a good press in the civil service. As IRS succinctly puts it:
The tough line adopted by the Treasury on public sector pay and its tight grip on paybill costs has made it increasingly difficult for management to reward top performers, motivate the majority of satisfactory employees and ensure progression through the pay bands — all of which have resulted in staff losing confidence in the system.
The 24-page report Incentives for change by John Makinson, group finance director of the media company Pearson plc, recommends a wide-ranging overhaul of reward programmes for staff in the Benefits Agency, HM Customs & Excise, Employment Service and Inland Revenue:
One of the key recommendations of the Makinson report, published in January 2000 by the Government's Public Services Productivity Panel, was that team-based incentives should become the norm for the great majority of employees working in national office networks .
Makinson added: In general, I would recommend that team rewards be based on the performance of individual offices, rather than the different work of teams within an office.
What's more, these bonuses should not be consolidated into base salaries and should not count toward salary for pension purposes.
The report can be downloaded in pdf format by clicking on . . . www.treasury.gov.uk/pspp/studies.html
No money, no Makinson
While the unions welcome the proposal to scrap individual merit pay, they have concerns about how the team pay arrangements would work in practice. Says IRS: In the past, such a move would have been opposed by the civil service unions, but a commitment to improve basic pay and progression and to remedy pay discrimination could smooth the path for the proposed changes.
Much will depend on the Treasury. The unions made clear to IRS that their co-operation depends on the Treasury being prepared to direct more money into public sector pay, In essence, says IRS, the unions stance is one of no money, no Makinson.
Want to know more?
Title: Civil service pay — from individual to team reward , Pay and Benefits Bulletin 499, July 2000.
Availability: contact Industrial Relations Services, tel: 020 7354 5858.
Further information: email the editor of the Pay and Benefits Bulletin jeremy.baugh@irseclipse.co.uk or jump to the IRS web site . . . www.irseclipse.co.uk