§ Mr. Beithasked the Minister for the Civil Service why pay research unit findings have not been honoured in the settlement proposed for professional and technical grades in the Civil Service, while they have been honoured for comparable administrative grades.
§ Mr. ChannonThe professional and technical grades in the Civil Service have been offered pay increases based on the findings of the pay research unit and calculated in precisely the same way as the offers made to and accepted by other groups of civil servants subject to pay research this year. There is no question of their not being treated in the same way as all other staff.
The Institution of Professional Civil Servants, which represents the professional and technical grades, has not accepted this offer and disputes my Department's interpretation of the pay research evidence. The simplest and most obvious way to resolve this dispute—if the IPCS cannot accept the offer—is to refer the matter to the independent Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal whose findings the Government will accept. I hope they will do so as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Beithasked the Minister for the Civil Service whether it is possible for a professional civil servant to be appointed to an open post in which he would receive a salary £1,000 less than a civil servant from a comparable administrative grade would have received had he been appointed to the same post; and what effect the Government's present offer for the professional and technical grades would have on this situation.
§ Mr. ChannonThere are a number of posts in the Civil Service—known as "opportunity posts"—which are open to suitably qualified and experienced staff from different Civil Service groups. A civil servant selected for such a post remains in his parent group and continues to be paid as a member of that group. This practice is laid down in an agreement made with the national staff side in 1971.
Since the pay of each occupational group is determined separately on the 660W basis of fair comparisons, internal Civil Service pay relativities change year by year to reflect the changing values which society generally attaches to different types of work. Thus the pay of different potential candidates from different groups for an opportunity post can and does vary significantly.
For example, the salary scales—which were payable before the recent pay settlement—for the principal, principal scientific officer and principal professional and technology officer were all different. Many opportunity posts are open to members of all three grades and the difference between the salary of the individual on the lowest scale point of, say the principal scientific officer, and that of the individual on the top scale point of the principal professional and technology officer, both of whom might be equally eligible for the same opportunity post, was more than £2,000.
The Government's present offer for the professional and technical grades will alter the internal Civil Service relativities. It will still be possible for two potential candidates for an opportunity post from different groups to receive different salaries.
Salaries are determined on the basis of fair comparisons for the whole group. In the case of the professional and technology group, only a small minority are in opportunity posts.