Last month saw the publication of the government’s pay remit guidance for delegated grades in the civil service. At 3.5% it roughly represents a cost-of-living increase though is the maximum overall increase in the pay bill and subject to negotiation within departments.
There are features of the guidance which are disappointing in their absence such as the introduction of pay progression, particularly when it was offered to senior civil servants. We will continue to raise this with the Cabinet Office and push for a roadmap for its introduction that reflects the need to deliver this reform in the foreseeable future.
With an inflation shock due to global events likely we would also have preferred a higher envelope but there are still opportunities here through good negotiation to put money in the pockets of civil servants and do it now.
It is the positive aspects of the pay remit guidance that we and our reps are focussing on in the short-term and which departments must do more than pay lip service to.
The first of these is the need to use the full 3.5% available to departments to structure a pay deal that works for all our members. There is leeway within that to help those in lower grades or where inequality exists, while still giving others enough that they shouldn’t be out of pocket and are positive about their pay future. This will be much harder to achieve if we don’t secure that full use of the 3.5%, and departments should be aware that we will not accept being short-changed on that.
We will also push hard for pay flex cases, making the most of our experience in areas like Natural England where intelligent campaigning and smart use of available data enabled us to secure better long-term deals for members. We have shown that it is possible, even within a relatively narrow spending envelope, to negotiate deals that address localised structural pay issues, inequality with other areas of the civil service, and which should help to the alleviate retention problems blighting some areas.
We will be making particular use of the new facility whereby staff units smaller than 500 can apply for a 1% “small business” pay flex case which can be signed off by a member of the SCS. This kind of flexibility is important, and will allow for us to negotiate localised, positively impactful changes much more quickly than has been the case in the past.
Both of these pay flex elements will be vital in areas where specialist staff with in-demand skills are being lured away to the private sector by better pay. This has left many areas short-staffed and with a skills and experience gap which puts huge pressure on remaining staff and ultimately hurts delivery of the quality of public services.
This is by no means the totality of the implications of the pay remit guidance where it relates to Prospect and to our work with members. But it highlights the opportunities that exist through positive engagement and effective negotiation.
This pay remit guidance is in no way perfect, but it does provide a framework where we can make a difference to civil servants, while not letting up on the structural issues which remain. We owe it to our members to press ahead with both.
Steve Thomas is deputy general secretary of Prospect, which is the second biggest union in the civil service and represents professionals, managers and specialist