PROOF that the Scottish Government is to keep its promise and scrap the five-year-long one per cent annual pay increase limit for the public sector emerged yesterday with news that most Scottish civil servants will receive a two per cent rise in November.
The National can also reveal that in a move won by trade union negotiators, the Scottish Government is definitely bringing forward the annual pay review date to April rather than August from next year, effectively boosting salaries much earlier in 2018.
A statement issued by the Government last night said: “The pay negotiations, applying to all Scottish Government staff covered by the Main and Marine Bargaining Units, have now concluded. Changes to pay will be implemented with end-November salaries backdated to 1 August 2017. The 2017 pay award allows us to transition from current pay policy with the one per cent cap to a future pay policy in 2018-19, where Scottish Ministers have indicated the cap will be lifted.”
The main features of the offer are that pay steps of £22,000 and under will increase by £400, that pay steps above £22,000 will increase by one per cent, and that all staff in Bands A, B and C, and staff in Marine grades below their maximum will continue to progress towards their pay range maximum.
In addition to the increase to all pay steps, staff on the maximum of their pay range will receive a non-consolidated lump-sum top-up payment of one per cent of the relevant pay range maximum — this applies to the Main bargaining unit, where the entitlement to a higher annual leave allowance of six weeks will be effective after four years reckonable service from 1 February next year.
That offer ensures a minimum two per cent payment to all staff covered by the Scottish Government collective bargaining.
Enhancements will be made to a number of fixed-rate allowances, which had been frozen in value since 2011 and the guarantee of no compulsory redundancies will be extended to 31 March 2018.
The biggest boost in pay was the Government’s offer on the pay review date which will change to 1 April from 1 August in 2018 as sought by the trade union side — this will allow “staff to access the terms of the 2018-19 pay policy as early as possible,” said the Government.
The first trade union to announce its reaction was Prospect who would not recommend rejection or acceptance of the offer and will not ballot its members, effectively accepting the deal.
The union wrote to its members: “We recognise that the Scottish Government has moved from its original position, and had taken steps to address our concerns about the impact on members real wages by the application of the pay cap coupled with rising inflation.
“By announcing the end of pay restraint, bringing forward the pay award date to enable early access to an uncapped negotiated settlement and by allowing non-consolidated payments to ensure a minimum two per cent payment Scottish Government have taken real tangible steps to address our concerns.
“However despite the positive steps the offer remains one which reduces many members’ real wages and continues the operation of public sector pay restraint to which Prospect is fundamentally opposed and so to recommend acceptance was not considered appropriate.”
Police and prison officers have already been offered pay rises of two and 1.7 per cent respectively, but this latest deal applies to all Scottish civil servants and will put pressure on local authorities to implement similar arrangements. Richard Hardy, Prospect’s national secretary in Scotland, told the Civil Service World publication that Scottish civil servants had a better deal than their Westminster colleagues, and that alongside other trade unions Prospect was calling for an end to public sector pay restraint across the whole of the UK.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said last night: “Scottish Government management believes the offer represents the best outcome for staff and the organisation, using all available flexibilities within the scope of the 2017-18 Public Sector Pay Policy.”
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