Union leaders agreed on the move during a joint council meeting yesterday morning and the decision was announced by Deputy Sam Mézec in the States.
Almost all of the trade unions whose members have been affected by the freeze, which covers 2015 and 2016, have decided to withdraw from modernisation meetings, during which the terms and conditions of workers are updated. The Royal College of Nursing is the only union continuing with the negotiations.
The pay freeze was announced as part of a States cost-cutting drive, which includes the modernisation programme, to make savings of £73 million in the public sector by 2019 and Nick Corbel, regional representative of Unite the union, said that members had become ‘increasingly frustrated and angry’ by the States Employment Board’s lack of response to the pay dispute.
