Treasury Minister Susie Pinel’s response to a written question tabled by Deputy Rob Ward has revealed that Jersey Telecom, Jersey Post, the Jersey Development Company, Andium Homes and Ports of Jersey employees received below-inflation average pay rises during 2016 and 2017, while some executives received large pay increases.
The news comes after it was revealed that 86% of States workers were offered a below-inflation pay award for 2018.
Ian Gallichan, the chief executive of social housing developer Andium Homes, saw his salary increase from £150,000 in 2016 to £189,000 in 2017 – a 26 per cent pay rise, while John Hamon, the company’s finance director, was paid £120,000 in 2016 increasing to £141,000 a year later.
JT chief executive Graeme Miller saw his pay package increase almost 5% from £346,000 to £363,000, while Jersey Development Company non-executive board members Ann Santry and Paul Masterson saw their pay increase by a third from £15,000 to £20,000.
Andium chairman Frank Walker said that Mr Gallichan and Mr Hamon’s pay rises that year were a ‘one-off’ as staff at the former Housing Department transferred to market median rate wages, and the pair would receive pay rises comparable to other staff in future.
‘The only two people in the organisation who were underpaid, according to the median pay scales, were Ian Gallichan and John Hamon,’ he said.
‘They were significantly below any comparison in both the public sector and the private sector. This was a one-off catch-up, so they are now on median pay levels.’
He added that better wages needed to be offered at Andium to attract high quality executives to the company.
‘About 18 months ago we tried to recruit a senior executive at a lower level than Ian and John and we couldn’t get anyone for salaries that were lower than theirs,’ he said.
‘We would have had to have recruited someone on a higher salary than our chief executive, which would have been nonsense.
‘Another thing to say is compared to other States-related bodies, such as the JDC and JT, the salaries for Ian and John sit right at the bottom of the pay league.’
In 2016 the retail price index [rate of inflation] in Jersey was 1.9%, while in 2017 it reached 3.6%.
Jersey Telecoms staff received a 1% pay award in 2016 and 1.5% in 2017, while JDC employees saw their salaries rise by 1.8 and 2.5% in each year.
Ports of Jersey employees received rises of 1% and 1.14%, while Jersey Post staff received rises of 1.7% in 2016 and between 2.2 and 2.47% in 2017. Andium’s staff did not receive a pay rise in 2016 and were transferred to market rate contracts in 2017, when a two per cent award was made.
