Report calls for cut in public sector pay

Wednesday 31st October 2007, 12:00AM GMT.

CUTTING the pay and size of the public sector workforce is vital to curbing States spending, according to a report by accountant and former Chamber of Commerce president Kevin Keen.

Mr Keen has spent several months looking at States budgets and accounts, after volunteering for the task as part of the JEP’s Public Purse campaign aimed at identifying public sector savings. And he says that without addressing the staff costs that make up half of annual public spending, the States are not honestly facing up to reducing costs. Ending the policy of no compulsory redundancies and giving low-paid workers annual pay rises at the RPI level but sticking to lump cash-based rises for higher-paid workers are among his suggestions.

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