A NINE-MONTH recruitment freeze for civil servants across the public sector earning £66,000 or more has been ordered as part of a drive to slash millions from the annual public-sector wage bill, the JEP can reveal.
Within hours of the Chief Minister publishing the draft Budget on Friday, government chief executive Andrew McLaughlin wrote to all staff of grade 11 and above advising them of the move.
The freeze will last at least nine months, with a review after six, but Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham stressed that it would not affect recruitment to essential front-line roles, such as doctors, nurses, teachers and the uniformed services.
Grade 11 employees earn between £65,805 and £73,364 following an 8% pay rise introduced for 2024. According to the index of average earnings for June 2023, the mean wage across the public sector was £1,120 a week, or £56,000 per annum. An 8% increase would put that figure at £60,480.
It is not clear how many people the freeze affects, but Deputy Farnham insisted that the focus of the efficiency drive was on senior managers, particularly those earning £100,000 and more.
Speaking when contacted by the JEP over the weekend, the Chief Minister said that the move was expected to save millions, which could be reinvested in core services.
He stressed that, in the light of planned redundancies, it was both right and fair to make sure that affected staff had the opportunity to move to other roles within the public sector to make use of their experience and skills. He said that it would be wrong to recruit new grade 11 and above staff while this restructuring was going on.
The freeze comes after the Chief Minister said on Friday that his ministers had also been instructed to significantly reduce the use of costly consultants, thereby honouring a commitment in the last Common Strategic Policy from 2024 to 2026 to curb growth and costs in the public sector.
“A momentum had developed when it came to expanding staff in the public sector and we are trying to halt that, and make sure our public services are the right size to deliver what we need,’ Deputy Farnham said.
“We can save millions of pounds here by reducing the payroll. We have very strong public services and some exceptionally talented people, and while we are restructuring we want to do everything we can to reduce anxiety. It is not ethical to restructure on one hand and employ new staff on the other.
“We would like Islanders to feel confident about the future. We are focused on getting back on track by addressing the issues previous administrations have avoided with the sort of common sense that has always underpinned Jersey’s prosperity.”
