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Home Secretary Theresa May has issued a written ministerial statement on the second and final part of the review of police pay and conditions in England and Wales led by Tom Winsor. The review, which was published on 15 March 2012, includes proposals to reform officers' pay structures and the ways in which they join and leave the service.

May wants the Police Negotiating Board and Police Advisory Board for England and Wales "to consider as a matter of urgency proposals on pay, a fast-track scheme to the rank of inspector and other matters that are within their respective remits."
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Chancellor George Osborne is expected to include plans to introduce local pay in parts of the civil service from this year (on Guardian website) in the Budget on 21 March 2012.

Government departments that started the two-year public sector pay freeze in 2010 - including the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Transport - are reported to be the first that will see pay aligned more closely with local salaries in the private sector and the cost of living.

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Public sector pay review bodies covering the armed forces, prison officers and NHS Agenda for Change employees have published their recommendations on the pay increase for 2012/13.

As these groups are covered by the two-year public sector pay freeze, the review bodies were asked to make pay recommendations only in respect of those staff earning a full-time equivalent salary of £21,000 a year or less. The Government has accepted the review bodies' recommendations that salaries below this threshold should increase by £250, with higher salaries frozen. Eligible staff will continue to receive progression increases.
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Local government employers have announced that council staff will have their pay frozen for an "unprecedented" third year in a row. The pay freeze will affect 1.6 million local government employees in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from April 2012. The decision comes at a time when pay awards monitored by XpertHR are running at their highest level since December 2008.

The Local Government Association said: "A combination of rising costs and shrinking local
government funding means councils were left with little choice. Increasing pay would
mean more job losses and cuts to the services people need."

The trade union side of the National Joint Council for Local Government Services had put in a claim for a "substantial increase in pay" and the unions responded angrily to the employers' refusal to make a pay offer. They have called for the matter be referred to Acas for arbitration. Heather Wakefield, Unison head of local government, described the decision as a "disgrace". She said: "The employers must think again, and at the very least come through with the £250 minimum increase for the lowest paid."

The GMB said the decision to impose a pay freeze for a third successive year had come as a shock and was "totally unacceptable". National secretary Brian Strutton said the GMB would consult its members over industrial action if the employers refused to go to arbitration, while Unite national officer Peter Allenson said the union would "fully support its members in any action they are prepared to take for pay justice".
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The award of the Police Arbitration Tribunal (PAT) on a package of reforms to police officer pay and conditions in England and Wales has been accepted in full by Home Secretary Theresa May, it was announced today (30 January 2012).

The PAT had been asked to consider the recommendations of the first part of the Winsor review of police pay and conditions after the Police Negotiating Board failed to reach agreement on the proposed changes. Although the tribunal accepted 10 of Winsor's recommendations, it modified five. The home secretary's decision means that police officers will see pay progression frozen for two years in addition to a two-year basic pay freeze. May described the reforms as "an important first step in modifying police pay and conditions so that they are fair to officers and to taxpayers", and confirmed that the Government was committed to further reform. The second part of the Winsor review, which looks at longer-term changes to police pay, is expected shortly. Several of the recommendations of the first part of the review have been deferred until the second part is published.
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Moving public sector workers onto regional pay has been branded by the GMB as "short changing regional economies".

The Government proposals to introduce regional pay were debated at the House of Commons yesterday. According to the Government, this will help to create a more balanced economy, but those opposed to the proposals, such as Jonathan Edwards Plaid Cymru MP, say the proposals would further depress areas in need of investment.

Jo Doonar  | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
UPDATE 30 JANUARY 2012 The Home Secretary has confirmed that she will accept the Police Arbitration Tribunal's findings in full.

A two-year freeze on pay progression for most police officers in England and Wales should go ahead by April 2012, finds the Police Arbitration Tribunal (PAT), whose decision on the Winsor recommendations (external website) was published today (9 January 2012).

The PAT was asked to make an award on 18 recommendations of the Winsor review of police pay and conditions on which the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) was unable to reach agreement. Winsor had proposed a two-year freeze on incremental progression, and the official side of the PNB had agreed to make an exception for new officers at the bottom of the pay scale. Although the PAT took the view that the first three points on the constable's scale should be excluded from the suspension, it said all other progression on the police officers' pay scales should be frozen as proposed.
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Public sector workers will see their pay rises capped by the Government for two years following the end of the two-year pay freeze.

In his autumn statement, the Chancellor, George Osborne, has said that "the country cannot afford the 2% rise assumed by some governement departments" after the end of the pay freeze (which is April 2013 for most, but April 2012 for some departments).

He has therefore imposed a cap, with public sector pay awards worth an average 1% for the two years following the pay freeze.

And in a move set to anger public sector workers and their unions further, he urged them to call off tomorrow's strike over pension reforms, saying that "it is hard to imagine a better deal than this".

The Chancellor also announced that the independent pay review bodies will be asked to consider how public sector pay can be more responsive to local labour markets, reporting back by next July.

Full details of the Chancellor's statement can be found on the HM Treasury website.

Sheila Attwood  | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Public sector pay needs "significant reforms" including an end to national strike balloting in the sector, according to a report from think tank the Policy Exchange. But its thinking has been dismissed by unions who say it should be "taken with a huge barrel of salt", according to today's Telegraph.

The report says that the typical public sector worker earns 24% more than a comparable private sector worker, or up to 43% more when pensions are taken into account. Only at the highest earning levels (more than £47,000 a year) do private sector workers earn more than their public sector counterparts.

Sheila Attwood  | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
The Government has accepted the recommendations of pay review bodies covering the armed forces, prison officers and NHS staff (other than doctors and dentists). An uplift of £250 will be applied to pay points of £21,000 or below for these groups from 1 April 2011, in line with Government policy. Staff with higher annual salaries will have their pay frozen.
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  • @Shottty: Informative post, like it. If the minimum wage freeze on read more
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