§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps she is taking to resolve the pay dispute in the Employment Service; and if she will make a statement. [14044]
§ Mr. ForthResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. Nicholas Harvey, dated 7 February 1996:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the current trade dispute within the Employment Service; responsibility for pay bargaining was delegated to the Agency in January 1994.
The Agency is in dispute with the Civil & Public Services Association (CPSA) over the 1995 pay award to those of our employees in grades represented by that union. These ES people have been paid increases, with effect from April 1995, of between 2.8% and 5.5%, depending upon their individual performance in the year ending March 1995. The majority of them received pay rises of more than 3.7%. We have made clear from the outset our view that these pay awards are fair, and are set at a level that is all the Agency can afford.
The pay awards were in addition to a 2.3% increase, also paid in April, for this group of employees as a consequence of CPSA agreement to a new pay structure for the grades in question.
The Employment Service remains committed to finding an early resolution to the dispute to enable us to resume our normal level of service to the jobseekers who use the 50 offices currently affected by strike action. Whilst we cannot and will not improve the 1995 pay award, we have offered to make specific provision during the 1996 pay negotiations to address particular issues which have been raised by the CPSA. It is for the union to decide whether to take the opportunity presented by the offer to end the dispute.
I hope that this is helpful.