Civil servants call for new pay structure

Morale in the civil service is being undermined by a lack of pay progression which determines how much individuals can earn once they settle in to a new post.

This, according to management union Prospect, is at the top of a list of civil service woes: half of the specialist staff polled by the union said they had been driven to look for a job outside the civil service.

Dai Hudd, Prospect deputy general secretary, said: “This is a bleak and depressing account of what it is like to be a specialist civil servant in 2008. To get these responses from people who are committed experts in fields like veterinary medicine, defence research and environmental science is deeply disturbing.”

He added that the service cannot function without the skills of these employees but the unfair pay systems now in place are forcing them out.

Morale was worst among long-serving staff, with dissatisfaction rising according to length of service in most cases. Three- quarters work longer than their contractual hours and, where bonus payments are received, they say that they are unfairly distributed.

Prospect called on the Treasury and Cabinet Office to recognise the failings of the present “delegated” pay system (that divides the service into hundreds of different bargaining units) and update pay structures in line with the reform agendas already implemented in the NHS and education sectors.