Archaic pay system must go, professional union warns government

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Archaic pay system must go, professional union warns government

Professional civil servants called for root and branch reform of the civil service pay system or said government departments would face potential widescale industrial unrest.



Meeting in Scarborough, the biennial conference of Prospect instructed the union to mount an immediate campaign to build the strongest opposition possible to current curbs on civil service pay.

Assistant general secretary Dai Hudd told 400 delegates that the civil service was the only public service still struggling with an outdated, unreformed pay system.

"Health, education and local government have all had fundamental reviews in the last five years but the civil service pay structure is still living in the past," he said.

"It is riddled with anomalies and inconsistencies which are causing a crisis of morale among its most skilled and qualified employees. Unless the service is dragged into the 21st century, the best people will leave, crippling the functions of government."

Delegates attacked departments and agencies for failing to argue a business case to the Treasury for more funds to tackle pay anomalies. "The time has passed for piecemeal remedies," said Hudd.

Conference accused the government of hiding behind the current delegated pay system in order to operate an arbitary, fragmented policy dictated by the Treasury. "That system was inherited by the current government and nobody believes in it except HR managers and consultants," said Hudd.

He called for trade unions in the service to unite and press the Cabinet Office and Treasury to come up with a new pay system for the 500,000 civil servants they employ nationally.

"That system must be fair, independent, transparent and reward skills and experience if it is to carry the confidence of staff," he said.

Because the issue was so important to civil servants, any government review should be of the same standing as the Fulton and Megaw reports in 1968 and 1982, Hudd said.