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| pay campaign 2002 | ||
| To: ALL MEMBERS SOUTHERN
REGION From: DEAN MILLS MEMBERS UPDATE: 12th NOVEMBER 2002 What Rise - There isn’t one!!! It is with great sadness I write this for members tonight Tuesday 12th November. Having driven to Leicester today for the Funeral of Brother Bob Miller, killed serving the public, I was angered, but not surprised, to hear on the way home that our employers would not make a realistic offer to us. It shows what they are made of I guess. Perhaps Bain was right on some things regarding leadership, but you never know. Some employers may show some in the future. So we have been offered 4% and then 7% next year by Bain. An 11% increase Right? Wrong! What Bain says is, at point 40 of his positional paper, “Provided it has satisfied itself that the reform package has been implemented, the Review envisages that the paybill would rise by around 4 per cent from November 2002 and a further 7 per cent from November 2003.” This infers that if all reforms have been met then the total bill for pay could rise by up to 4% so long as additional efficiency savings are made. Bain has stated that the pay of retained firefighters would rise to an equal hourly rate. That rise has to be paid for and of course the total pay bill will also rise as a result. This being the case and taking into account control adjustment, retained fee increase etc what does it leave from the 4% increase in total paybill for a pay rise for everyone else? Working on a Brigade (Brigade A) with a paybill of £6,302,000 for its wholetime establishment and a retained establishment with a payroll cost of £1,977,000 and a control pay cost of £413,000; its easy to see that if there is an increase of just 10% to the control and retained pay element then the total paybill for the brigade would equate to a rise in overall terms of 3.8%. Or as Bain puts it ‘around 4%’ In another example (Brigade B) lets assume just a 4% increase in a paybill of £11,865,000. This gives a net increase of £474,000 for any pay adjustment. If the pay for the retained and control staff of Brigade (B) are taken into account with the changes proposed by Bain then the cost increase is £235,200. That leaves just £238,800 available to pay for any increase for wholetime firefighters of every rank. Just 6 Senior officers earning £60,000 each would account for £14,400 of that sum. It doesn’t leave much to share around does it. And in case (B) its only assuming minimal increased costs. So the figure used by Bain may not in fact mean any increase in pay this year as the total paybill will have risen anyway to accommodate a fair pay adjustment for Part Time Firefighters and Control Staff. NO RISE STILL: All this talk of a rise may well be mistaken! However lets take it that I have got it entirely wrong and the offer of 4% and then 7% is in fact new money. I know Bain doesn’t say it (in fact he says “Against that background, we have concluded that a radical programme of reform is required to change the Fire Service into a modern institution which can truly deserve the trust, confidence and respect which the public places in it. Significant new money cannot, and should not, be made available without this reform.” But assume for a moment it is ‘new’ money. I will take a liberty and guess at a 3% increase we would have got this and next year. I accept it may be higher or lower but the employers indicated 4% anyway so lets take 3% over each year. That means we would gain 5% additional pay over the two years. Bain has said he will make comment on pensions in his full report. He states in a letter to John Prescott yesterday “ It will also tackle HR issues, such as pensions, senior staff and long term structures which are not covered by the positional paper”. It is widely known that the maximum we could pay in pension payments would amount to a 4% increase. (which I hasten to add we would resist as we already pay 11% of our pay into the scheme) If this were forced we would be left with just 1% as an increase. Is that acceptable to you? A 1% rise over two years above what we would have got anyway? Not a lot is it. Hardly professional pay!! Think again. I said at the start that Bain amounted to nothing at all. 1% is nothing at all over two years but it is something I suppose. Until you remember that National Insurance payments go up by …..1% next April. Thanks Mr Bain and this Government. ….…… FOR NOTHING WHATSOEVER The Government ‘Bain’ Inquiry has resulted in nothing, it offers nothing and it means nothing. Read the full Bain report. It offers something and nothing. Something for a select few and nothing for others. It uses language such as pay bill but not pay rise. It says YOU are not worth professional pay BUT if you are very good, behave, and sit quietly in the corner and fiddle existing budgets you MAY get 4% this year if one of the chosen ones. And if you are a chosen one. Congratulations. It means you get to have an extra 24p an hour. Well done. Enjoy your 4%. See you on the picket line.
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