Last week JCSA Prospect and the civil service branch of Unite the Union voted in favour of going on strike for two hours at 9 am on Friday 7 December.
Members also approved a motion calling for union executives to organise further industrial action as and when necessary.
Civil servants have already been asked to work on a ‘work-to-rule’ basis, meaning that they do not work over and above the hours stated in their contracts. Terry Renouf, the president of JCSA Prospect, said that he was unsure how many workers would take part in this week’s strike but warned that up to 2,500 staff in Jersey were civil servants and a number of services might become unavailable.
‘I have no idea how many people will choose to support the action. It is entirely up to them whether they do or not and we will respect their decision either way,’ he said. ‘But there are about 2,500 civil service staff, so there could be an extensive impact.
‘It is up to the employer to decide which services close and which do not, but we will be working very hard to ensure that no lives at all are put at risk, no one is put in danger and that safeguarding continues.’
Dissatisfaction has grown among several groups of public-sector workers in recent months after the majority of States employees received below-inflation pay offers for 2018 and 2019.
Civil servants received a one per cent pay offer for both years, with the latest inflation rate in Jersey measured at 4.3 per cent.
Aside from the civil servants, teaching unions – including the head teachers’ association – are also gearing up for industrial action by balloting their members.
Mr Renouf said that JCSA Prospect could still call off this Friday’s strike if a ‘good enough’ revised pay offer was made to civil servants.
‘It is still within the employer’s gift to prevent this from happening but they need to come back with an improved offer,’ he said.
‘They could do it at quarter to five on Thursday afternoon, if they like. But it would need to be tangible and it would need to be a good enough offer to prevent the strike from happening.’
He added that the union was checking whether it could go ahead with a planned gathering of members in the Royal Square while the strike was ongoing.
‘We will be putting out a message to members when we have confirmation. We will be inviting States Members to come to the square to speak to the workers,’ he said.
