The Government and Unite the Union have continued to meet and maintain dialogue following the ballot of Unite members and the calling of strike action from 11th September 2025 with a view to finding a resolution to the dispute. There were a further series of meetings on Wednesday 3rd September focused on dispute resolution. 

A joint statement continued: “Government have maintained that there remains no scope to improve the public sector pay proposal announced at Budget 2025. Unite for their part have continued to raise that the central tenet of their public sector pay claim 2025/26 was around the recovery of the real terms losses in pay across this and successive pay rounds, as well as raising structural issues around the minimum entry salary. 

“The parties agree that the process of negotiation around Pay 2025/26 was not, for constitutional issues related to the treaty, where either Government or the union would have wanted it structurally, in detail and in frequency, which needed addressing for future pay rounds. The parties also recognise that the purchasing power of public sector wages has been significantly eroded by external factors. As such it is agreed that the parties would have wanted to see the public sector pay proposal for 2025/26 to have gone further had it not been for financial constraints. 

“Following previous and the most recent dialogue between HM Government of Gibraltar and Unite the Union, the following has been agreed between the parties to resolve the dispute subject to a ballot of members to accept the terms of the dispute resolution:- 

• The parties commit to a clear timeline of monthly negotiation meetings to commence in September 2025 with the shared commitment of those meetings focused on negotiations to recover the real terms losses in pay since August 2019 in full.
• That shared commitment will necessarily require detailed negotiations to ensure that the process of the full recovery of real terms losses in pay is managed sustainably across a binding, multi-year agreement commencing at Pay 2026/27.
• As part of the clear timeline of negotiations, a roadmap of meetings and milestones through that negotiation process will be agreed.
• The minimum entry salary in the public sector will be increased in line with the parity principles to reflect the minimum entry salary in the public sector in the UK, which is currently £24,413.00. Anyone currently earning below that figure would see pay increased to that level and backdated to 1st April 2025.
• The negotiation framework will commence with an agreement on Terms of Reference which will consist of a number of elements as well as public sector pay, including a review of pay differentials through the grades and how the future application of the minimum entry salary in the UK will be applied including backdating to 1st April each year. 
• Further work will be undertaken jointly by the parties on the other elements of the Unite the Union pay claim where announcements were made at Budget 2025 namely the Living Wage Commission, the use of Zero Hours Contacts in both the public and private sectors, plus the matter of the minimum wage.
• The parties also have agreed to address the broader industrial relationship between HM Government of Gibraltar and Unite the Union with a view to improving this to the betterment of those living and working in Gibraltar and the union’s members.

Unite the Union has agreed to postpone all strike action to allow for a further ballot of union members.