The ministers have lodged a proposition asking States Members to bring forward all the cash earmarked for redundancy payouts so that £6 million will be available this year and £16 million next year.
Originally the plan was to pay out £2 million this year, £10 million next year and a further £10 million the year after.
But in their proposed amendment to the Medium Term Financial Plan for 2016–2018 – due to be debated next month – the ministers say that ‘significantly more funding’
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will be required this year than the £2m set aside for this year, with the total bill likely to be at least £6 million for 2015 alone.
In their report to the amendment they say: ‘The Council of Ministers is determined that savings should be taken as soon as possible, in the interests of fairness to those who have successfully applied to the scheme, and in order to expedite the reform required to change the way we deliver our services and contribute towards the £70 million people savings required by 2019.’
Health Minister Andrew Green, who has been involved with the selection process as a member of the States Employment Board, said that of more than 300 applications, 104 had been approved, with 52 members of staff leaving imminently and 52 more before the start of January.
Asked whether compulsory redundancies would now be applied, the minister said: ‘This has certainly not been ruled out, but we have no plans at the present time.
‘We are hoping that it will be mainly voluntary or by natural turnover.’
He said that a hundred vacancies that had come up in recent months had not been refilled.
Of the posts, three are in the £75,000-to-£100,000 salary band, 20 in the £50,000-to-£75,000 band, 59 from £25,000 to £50,000 and 22 were for £25,000 or less.
The ‘people savings’, together with new health and sewage charges and cuts to social security benefits, are part of the four-year plan to maintain a balanced budget and avoid a structural deficit of £145m by 2019.
The extra £4 million allocated for this year and the £16 million next year will come from the Strategic Reserve – the ‘rainy day fund’ set aside for emergencies.
The money would be paid back in 2019.
The ministers say they are ‘satisfied that this expenditure is urgent and cannot be funded from existing allocations’.
The redundancy process began in June when 7,000 States workers were sent letters inviting them to apply for voluntary redundancy, voluntary severance – where the work is absorbed through restructuring – or voluntary early retirement.
The next phase starting early next year will involve restructuring departments to remove duplication, with some departments brought together, or possibly outsourced or managed privately by existing employees.
- Last month it was revealed that the States will spend £5 million on payouts for the first round of voluntary redundancies to recoup £4.2 million in annual savings.
- At the time, it was confirmed that there had been 329 expressions of interest in the redundancy scheme, which led to 129 applications being submitted to the panel responsible for assessing voluntary redundancy requests after the scheme launched in June.
- Of those, 104 approvals were given, with 52 employees due to leave their jobs this year with payouts amounting to £2 million, and a further 52 public-sector workers due to leave the service at a cost of £3 million early next year.
Approved voluntary redundancy applications by salary band:
- £0£25,000: 22
- £25,000£50,000: 59
- £50,000£75,000: 20
- £75,000£100,000: 3[
