HR to play vital role in managing public service change
Public sector employers must ensure that they have the right HR capabilities in place to ensure staff engagement and manage industrial relations during a period of unprecedented change, an Acas report has warned. A discussion paper commissioned by the conciliation service entitled ‘A new era of public service employment relations? The challenges ahead’ pointed out […]
MP advocates fear and discipline for public sector workers
The only way to achieve excellence among public sector workers is through “some real discipline and some fear”, the coalition government’s policy minister Oliver Letwin has said. According to the Guardian, Letwin, who is the coalition’s architect of public sector reforms, told attendees at the launch of a liberal think tank’s report at the […]
Average public sector pay rise: zero percent!
While most public sector workers are having to endure ongoing pay freezes, their private sector peers are getting average 3% boosts – and only six out of every 100 such staff are getting no pay rises at all. The findings come from the latest look at British pay from researchers Incomes Data Services. It […]
Birmingham City Council’s Martini employment contract in flux
Birmingham's City Council's 'Martini' contract – so called because it allegedly permits managers to demand staff work anytime, any place, anywhere – has been signed up to by less than half of the city's staff even as a row continues over planned offshoring of IT jobs. With effect from 1 November, all staff working for the […]
NAO warns public sector HR is not delivering
Changes in the nature of the HR role across government is contributing to a lack of value for taxpayer money spent on training civil servants. While the government estimates it spent £275m (or £547 for each civil servant) on training in 2009/10, spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) reckons that this is "significant underestimate". […]
BBC announces cuts to tackle criticism
The BBC will axe two thirds of its senior managers, curb the pay and perks of those remaining and introduce a cap on the director-general’s salary, its new chairman has announced. Lord Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust and a former chairman of the Conservative Party, promised to take action over the “toxic” issue of […]
Difference in earnings between public and private sector widens in poor job market
Although public sector workers are now paid an average of 7.8% more than their private sector counterparts, the number of people finding work in either area has slowed to a 22-month low. According to the Office for National Statistics, by April 2010 the difference in average earnings between public and private sector staff has widened […]
Head of HR in NHS to be replaced by interim
The head of HR for the NHS and Social Care is leaving the post at a time of unprecedented change and uncertainty for both sectors to take up a senior role at BT. Clare Chapman, director general of workforce for the NHS and Social Care – the country’s biggest HR job – will leave the […]
Lowest paid in public sector to lose out on pension contributions
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE While the retirement age for public sector workers will be linked to the state pension age in future, the lowest paid will be exempt from extra pension contributions, a government minister will say today. In a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research in London, Chief […]
Teaching unions vote to strike
Up to 750,000 public sector workers could take co-ordinated industrial action on 30 June after two teaching unions voted to strike yesterday and a third union is expected to follow suit today. The Public and Commercial Services Union has said it anticipates that the vote will come down overwhelmingly in favour of strike action when […]
Council off shoring move leads to Union anger
Unions warned that Birmingham City Council’s plans to offshore 100 IT roles to India were only the “tip of the iceberg” as members began voting on strike action over job cuts and changes to pay and conditions. In what the Local Government Association said was the first move by a local authority to outsource […]
Public servants co-ordinate strikes to fight cuts
The first of a series of co-ordinated national strikes in protest at coalition government budget cuts is expected to take place at the end of next month, with more than a million public servants due to take part. The UK’s largest civil service union the Public and Commercial Services Union is expected to vote overwhelmingly […]
Public sector pay ‘better than in private sector’
Public sector hourly wages outstripped those of the private sector for the second year running in 2010 as the bottom 30% of private sector employees suffered “dramatic” pay cuts, a report has revealed. The study undertaken by right-wing think tank the Policy Exchange and based on Office of National Statistics data revealed that, in every […]
London Underground agrees strike action
Only days after proposals were put before Parliament to ban industrial action by transport and emergency workers unless 50% of union members back it, London Underground staff have agreed to strike in support of two sacked colleagues. Tube workers voted by two to one in a ballot undertaken by the RMT union […]
Recruitment procurement framework for local authorities sees 11 companies triumph
Eleven recruitment agencies have been appointed to supply temps to local authorities under a newly-let Managed Services for Temporary Agency Resources procurement framework in a bid to cut costs and reduce the time spent on tendering. The national framework agreement is operational now, but the first wave of early adopters is not expected to go […]
Over 20, 000 clinical NHS jobs to be cut
More than half of the 40,000 NHS jobs facing the axe over the next three years will be clinical posts, even though a majority of nurses are already struggling to cope due to inadequate staffing levels. Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, warned at the nursing union’s […]
Public sector pay should be linked to performance
Senior public sector managers’ pay should be performance-related but not subject to a cap at 20 times the salary of their lowest paid staff, an independent review has proposed. The government-commissioned Fair Pay Review, led by Work Foundation head Will Hutton, the final version of which is published today, U-turned on initial recommendations made in […]
Union fury at public sector pension plans
Unions were gearing up yesterday for a summer of discontent in protest at sweeping changes to public sector pensions proposed in Lord Hutton’s much anticipated report. The Independent Public Service Pension Commission’s final report recommended that pensions no longer be linked to final salaries but instead be tied to average career earnings in a move […]
Public sector pension reform may spark action
The UK faces a wave of industrial unrest if the recommendations of a report on public sector pension reform due to be published later this week are adopted. A Treasury review, conducted by former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Hutton, is expected to propose sweeping changes to the pension system, which include axing ‘gold-plated’ financial salary […]
Public sector recruitment freeze extended while police face cuts
The coalition government has extended its temporary civil service recruitment freeze at the same time as Home Secretary risked confrontation with police by warning that cuts to their pay and conditions would be necessary to avoid thousands more job losses. Home Secretary Theresa May told the 140,000-strong police service in England and Wales yesterday that […]
