The Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce have issued a statement regarding the Public Sector Pay Award.

A statement from the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce follows below:

In April this year the Chamber set out its position on the move by unions to push for a significant increase in public sector pay.

The full article was published in the Chamber member’s magazine Gibraltar Business and can be read here.

The current outrageous 18 to 20% pay claims need to be strongly resisted. Efficiencies and improvements in productivity from e-government and family-friendly working hours must be clearly demonstrated. These improvements have been promised for many years but so far there appears to be very slow progress on this.

Any award will have to be paid for largely by the taxes or tax increases paid by the private sector. Average pay in the public sector, across all grades is already almost 25% above average pay in the private sector. The private sector operates in a highly competitive environment and this has a bearing on salaries and wages. We are still far from clear about the inevitable cost increases which will be incurred as a result of the recently announced Treaty Agreement. Tax rises caused by unrestrained pay claims risk making Gibraltar even less competitive with the inevitable consequences of this on economic growth and jobs. 

The Chamber and its members are watching the current discussions between the unions and the Government with understandable concern. Hopefully the Government will err on the side of caution in any increase in pay it awards the public sector and will keep it very low.