Seeing sense over pay rise

At present, the independent body which makes States pay awards believes that the rate should increase by 1.8 per cent, which represents £818 a year. In the absence of any action to the contrary, that increase would be paid from 1 January onwards.

However, if the increase were to be paid, a great many ordinary Jersey people would look on aghast. They would find it very hard to understand how and why Members could accept any sort of rise when so many rank and file workers in industries of all sorts and States employees have seen repeated pay freezes.

In addition, anyone reflecting on the increase, if it were to go ahead, would be very likely to wonder what sort of understanding of public relations prevails among our politicians or the extent of their appreciation of current economic difficulties.

To their credit, some Members rapidly indicated that even if the increase were paid, they would not accept it. Less creditable, on the other hand, was the time it took for any Member to lodge a formal proposition rejecting the recommendation of the pay body. The move was made almost literally at the eleventh hour.

It was St Saviour Constable Sadie Rennard who ensured that the question will be debated. Perhaps accurately, she says that her proposition will not win her many friends in the Assembly. But even if that is the case, she can count on the approval of a great many of her parishioners and other Islanders. And that approval will be particularly emphatic if, as they undoubtedly should, her colleagues see the sense and strength of her argument.

Figures published with details of Mrs Rennard’s challenge indicate that the weekly wage of States Members is, at £884, second in the Island league, topped only by the finance sector. Some would say that this is limited remuneration for ministerial responsibility, but it is doubtful whether many would say that the rate is uncommensurate with an ordinary Member’s duties.