Pay update - Prison officers and Fire and Rescue officers

08 March 2019

​The States Employment Board (SEB) has authorised formal pay offers to be made to prison officers and Fire and Rescue officers, and their respective unions have agreed to consult members on these offers.

The offers for 2018 and 2019 have not changed. But SEB is using the greater flexibility available after the Medium Term Financial Plan to authorise offers for 2020 that go a long way toward compensating for the impact on employees of the pay restraint that has been in place in recent years.

Prison officers and Fire and Rescue officers have been offered RPI+1.3% consolidated, with effect from 1 January 2020.

The offer for 2018-19 remains a consolidated, flat-rate percentage offer worth 2% in both 2018 and 2019, plus a non-consolidated lump-sum payment worth 1.1% for 2018 and 1% for 2019.

The Fiscal Policy Panel currently forecasts RPI in September 2019 to be 3.4%, which means that officers could receive increases worth 4.7% from 1 January 2020. If inflation is higher or lower, the pay offers will be adjusted accordingly.

Over the three years, the pay offer is worth 8.9% consolidated, plus 2.1% cash payments. This means that officers would receive between £2,778 and £6,305 in consolidated pay increases, plus between £659 and £1,497 in cash payments, depending on grade.

The overall pay package includes a contributory pension scheme, into which the government contributes up to 16% of pensionable pay.

Unions will now consult their members on the offer.