States once again show contempt for civil service

Bully boy tactics abound once again at the top of SOJ management.

In a move clearly meant to send a message of "we're running the show here", States representatives decided that they couldn't be arsed to show up for a meeting last week with public sector union Staffside. According to Prospect, Staffside's representatives were left waiting for three-quarters of an hour for States representatives to arrive, after which they saw that no-one was showing up and left.

These negotiations come at a critical time, both for employees and management of SOJ. Despite an organisation-wide propaganda drive, Charlie Parker's utterly derisory "workforce modernsation" offer to put all States employees on one pay scheme with only ten bands was humiliatingly withdrawn after being rejected by major public sector unions in February. Since then, negotiations have been ongoing between said unions and the employer, apparently, given this latest show of force by SOJ, to not much success - Terry Renouf, chairman of Staffside and Prospect's Jersey branch, called this "a clear indication to Staffside that once again the Employer is not sincere about wanting to negotiate with staff representatives in line with agreed timescales".

This isn't the first clear indication of an insincere attitude that workforce modernisation has produced either. While Parker's restructuring program has had senior bureaucrats, often with years or even decades of experience, having to re-apply for their jobs, a "trebles all round" attitude has taken hold in head office, with two of Parker's pet sycophants "expert consultants" earning up to £1,300 a day and the other two on £100,000+ a year contracts, approximately three times the average Jersey salary. Helier Clement of the JEP slammed this gravy train in a column a few weeks back - he said that "this lot have not only hopped aboard (the gravy train) but appear also to have struck oil or discovered gold in the bowels of Cyril le Marquand House". I couldn't have put it better myself - especially coming at a time when living standards are slipping and inequality on the rise.

(Incidentally, is anyone else sick of being referred to by Parker as a "customer" or watching him lecture the bureaucracy on "customer services"? This isn't some mega-corporate state, Parker. We aren't the States' customers - we're the owners, something SOJ top management would do well to remember).