The States Employment Board made a final revised offer earlier this month to more than 3,000 civil servants in an attempt to end the year-long pay dispute.
The latest offer, which would come into effect in 2020, equates to 1.3% plus inflation as it stands in October 2019. Inflation for October is currently forecast to be 3.1%.
The offer also includes working with unions to identify potential new savings which would then be split to fund additional salary increases in 2020.
The ballot will remain open for two weeks. Despite the new offer, civil servants are due to strike tomorrow and Tuesday as a result of the long-running dispute.
The SEB has sent a four-page letter to more than 3,000 civil servants to update them on the current situation and explain the process of the negotiations with the two unions, Prospect and Unite.
The board has also asked for civil servants who are not part of a union to share their views on the latest pay offer.
In the letter, co-signed by group director for people and corporate services Mark
Grimley and SEB vice-chairman Constable Richard Buchanan, the pair insist the
latest offer is the best that can be
negotiated.
The letter said: ‘The trade unions have decided to go back out to ballot their members on the revised offer.
‘The unions have said that they will remain neutral, neither calling for acceptance nor rejection of the offer.
‘However, the language of their communications to members, along with their insistence in continuing with planned industrial action, suggests that they are far from neutral in their approach.
‘Yet they know, as do we, that this final offer is the best that can be negotiated.
‘It is also an opportunity to achieve the first negotiated agreement on a pay offer
since 2011 between civil service unions and SEB.’
The letter concludes by saying any civil servants who want to share their views or give feedback on the offer can do so by emailing EmploymentRelations@gov.je.
