Civil Service Pay

nigeats1965

I'm stuck in my role as an AA. Bordering on NLW for 48 hours each & every week. Nights & weekends included.  Overtime, I get Flat Rate. Dedicated Day Workers (Mon - Thurs, No Nights or Weekends) get 'almost' equal pay to me for the privilege of being away from my Family & Home during the middle of the night & working almost every weekend for £12.02 per hour - NLW as of Apr 24 will be £11.44.  Most of my colleagues are all receiving pay rises Apr 24 to lift them upto £11.44 squeezing current 'Pay Gap' from £1.19 pence per hour to £0.58 pence per hour. The same happened last year. I have made everyone I possibly can informed from my Line Manager to the Head 'Honcho'  of my worries & concerns but it falls on 'deaf ears'. No one Cares. No one Listens. No one Responds.  I'm 60 next year & flogging myself with Flat Rate overtime sometimes doing three extra 12 hour shifts at other locations on my Rest Days after nights where again a cohort of colleagues receive Double Time & Shift Allowances for exactly the same overtime shift. Equality. Fairness. Discrimination. The Civil Service, Ministry of Defence, 2024.

annabanana82

You aren't alone, it's a big issue across many CS departments. I've heard of many AO's considering downgrading due to the now minimal pay gap. 

With the best will in the world, neither your LM or the head 'honcho' will have any remit, influence or ability to set CS pay. Are you a member of a union? 

Brie

It is unfortunate that it often comes down to quitting a job with unfair pay and going for something like working at Tesco's.  Taking it up with a union does seem to be the only other option.

BoGoF

If the Union is PCS then you would be as well trying collect water in a seive. They are useless.

Mr.Generous

I don't think he meant quit as in go on the dole, probably meant look elsewhere. Realistically it's all you can do. Sorry to say but you'll be just wasting your own time and effort trying to convince line manager.

TELLIT01

Within the Civil Service, local management has very little say on the hourly rate being paid.  Unfortunately, unpalatable as it is, the comment Andy_L is a pretty accurate assessment of the options open to you.  Even if you get an 'exceptional' rating in your annual review that may lead to an additional 1% uplift over and above the increase everybody else gets.

Civil Service unions have no teeth, so don't expect anything from that route.  In my final year at DWP there was a push to have people on site until 7pm.  The incentive for agreeing to basically ruining your day?  An addition payrise of about 1.5%!

I understand your anger, but that isn't going to make any difference to management.

EnPointe

TELLIT01 said:

Within the Civil Service, local management has very little say on the hourly rate being paid.  Unfortunately, unpalatable as it is, the comment Andy_L is a pretty accurate assessment of the options open to you.  Even if you get an 'exceptional' rating in your annual review that may lead to an additional 1% uplift over and above the increase everybody else gets.

Civil Service unions have no teeth, so don't expect anything from that route.  In my final year at DWP there was a push to have people on site until 7pm.  The incentive for agreeing to basically ruining your day?  An addition payrise of about 1.5%!

I understand your anger, but that isn't going to make any difference to management.

7pm is normal working  hours in the NHS and  many unionised private sector settings   ( unsocials kicking in from either 1900 or 2000 hrs usually ( or  earlier for 'full night shifts'  that  start 1800 onwards )

OrbitHeadache

PCS are balloting for strike action so if you are part of the union get your ballot paper in.

Sad fact is civil servants are getting a pay rise in April to not drop below NMW.

The difference between the lowest paid i.e. AO's, AA's and Grade 0's is only about £150pm.

Shocking state of affairs 

TELLIT01

EnPointe said:

TELLIT01 said:

Within the Civil Service, local management has very little say on the hourly rate being paid.  Unfortunately, unpalatable as it is, the comment Andy_L is a pretty accurate assessment of the options open to you.  Even if you get an 'exceptional' rating in your annual review that may lead to an additional 1% uplift over and above the increase everybody else gets.

Civil Service unions have no teeth, so don't expect anything from that route.  In my final year at DWP there was a push to have people on site until 7pm.  The incentive for agreeing to basically ruining your day?  An addition payrise of about 1.5%!

I understand your anger, but that isn't going to make any difference to management.

7pm is normal working  hours in the NHS and  many unionised private sector settings   ( unsocials kicking in from either 1900 or 2000 hrs usually ( or  earlier for 'full night shifts'  that  start 1800 onwards )

That may be the case, but it wasn't part of our contract where I worked.  The requirement was for 2 people to be available until 6pm in case any late calls came in.  That only happened on very rare occasions, and there were people who preferred to start late and finish at 6pm.  The only way they could try to force people to accept the longer hours was by withholding any payrise if they declined.  They were also effectively removing Flex working and those on the new contract would have to start at 7:45 or whatever the required start time was for a 7pm finish.

EnPointe

TELLIT01 said:

EnPointe said:

TELLIT01 said:

Within the Civil Service, local management has very little say on the hourly rate being paid.  Unfortunately, unpalatable as it is, the comment Andy_L is a pretty accurate assessment of the options open to you.  Even if you get an 'exceptional' rating in your annual review that may lead to an additional 1% uplift over and above the increase everybody else gets.

Civil Service unions have no teeth, so don't expect anything from that route.  In my final year at DWP there was a push to have people on site until 7pm.  The incentive for agreeing to basically ruining your day?  An addition payrise of about 1.5%!

I understand your anger, but that isn't going to make any difference to management.

7pm is normal working  hours in the NHS and  many unionised private sector settings   ( unsocials kicking in from either 1900 or 2000 hrs usually ( or  earlier for 'full night shifts'  that  start 1800 onwards )

That may be the case, but it wasn't part of our contract where I worked.  The requirement was for 2 people to be available until 6pm in case any late calls came in.  That only happened on very rare occasions, and there were people who preferred to start late and finish at 6pm.  The only way they could try to force people to accept the longer hours was by withholding any payrise if they declined.  They were also effectively removing Flex working and those on the new contract would have to start at 7:45 or whatever the required start time was for a 7pm finish.

that statement is irrelevant to what are  considered 'normal working hours'  for the purposes of  shift pay / allowance by the organisation