CM Called To Hearing Over Strikes

Thursday, 10 January 2019 07:55

The Chief Minister has been asked to appear at a public hearing to answer questions about the public sector pay row.

The Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel has given Senator John Le Fondré two weeks to arrange a date.

It says it's right he is held accountable for the dissatisfaction among States workers.

The panel also wants the Chief Minister to confirm who he will be appointing to chair the States Employment Board after Senator Tracey Vallois stood down last month.

"We have written to the Chief Minister to ask him to appear before us to ensure that decision-making in this very important area is held to account. We feel that there is a specific urgency now to ensure that we understand the rationale for the negotiations that have been undertaken to date." - Senator Kristina Moore, Chairman, Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel.

#ScrutinyJSY The Corporate Services Panel has called @John_Le_Fondre and members of the States Employment Board to attend a public hearing on the on-going public sector pay dispute. For more see: https://t.co/lQ7VMeW2e9 #CSSPJSY @JessePerchard @Richard12283487 pic.twitter.com/9DuRZBCgdG
— States Assembly (@StatesAssembly) January 9, 2019

Civil servants are staging a second round of strike action next week. Teachers are being balloted on industrial action, and Headteachers have voted in favour of walking out. Nurses have rejected a revised pay offer and begun mediation in an attempt to settle their pay dispute.

Vice-chair of the SEB Constable Richard Buchanan has insisted there is no more money and warned of potential tax rises and job losses if the deadlock cannot be broken.

"There is a budget deficit in 2020. We cannot increase that, and if we settled outside of that there would be other implications. We would have to look at either job losses or increasing taxes, which would not be - I would suggest - very popular with the rest of the island."

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