Unite has today announced the outcome of the Public Sector Pay Ballot which opened the day after the Chief Minister’s Budget address on 30^th June in workplaces and concluded with a further two days in the Unite Office on 7^th & 8^th July.

The ballot count took place on Wednesday 9^th July and the Unite Public Sector Pay Working Group convened today to discuss the ballot outcome and next steps.

The ballot result on a turnout of 47.7% was 15.97% to accept the pay proposal and 84.03% to reject the pay proposal, which the union says now provides a clear mandate for industrial action.

Stuart Davies, National Officer for Unite Gibraltar stated “Firstly I would like to thank the ballot teams, whether shop stewards, convenors, members and officers, plus those in the Unite Office who invested a huge amount of time and effort to make this workplace ballot happen. The union had an industrial imperative to establish whether members accepted or rejected the pay proposal announced in Budget in the short window between Budget and the pay settlement date of 1^st August which necessitated a truncated ballot period. We have once again seen really positive engagement with members across public sector workplaces and a spike in recruitment into the union through the ballot.

 “The Unite Public Sector Pay Working Group convened today to discuss the ballot outcome and next steps. In light of the overwhelming rejection of the pay proposal and the mandate for industrial action, the union has written to the Chief Minister today to establish the trade dispute between Unite & HMGOG on the issue of Public Sector Pay. In that correspondence we have invited HMGOG back to the negotiating table to exercise dispute resolution to explore whether a solution can be found and industrial action avoided.

"As a result of the ballot, Unite will be engaging with shop stewards and members across the public sector to develop and agree the shape of industrial action on the important issue of public sector pay and to improve the proposed position on recovery of the real terms losses in pay since 2019”.