As previously advised, the NICS pay claim was formally submitted to the Department of Finance (DoF) on 21 June 2022.
On 18 July, and entirely separately from the pay claim, I wrote to the department to ask the Minister to consider compensation payments to all Civil Service and ALB staff equivalent to £500 net for each of the last 2 years from August 2020 to July 2022.
On 30 August 2022, Trade Union Side met with the Finance Minister and the DoF Permanent Secretary, Neil Gibson, to raise concerns about the delay in the award which was due from 1 August and to impress upon them the urgent need for a pay offer of inflation plus an additional 5%.
The Minister advised that there will be more clarity on the budget for pay and other issues when the new Prime Minister has decided on priorities. We pressed the Minister for early engagement when budget details are clearer.
As part of the campaign to win a fair pay award, NIPSA has now issued a letter to every MLA (see examples to right), in every party, to ask them to sign our pay charter to indicate their support for a fair pay award for Civil Servants. You may now wish to contact your local MLAs to encourage their support.
We intend to formally launch the Charter later this month and to invite those MLAs who have given us their support