Civil servants offered 5% pay increase and one-off £1,500 payment as Finance Minister hopes 'staff will look favourably on the offer'

The Department of Finance has made the pay offer following negotiations with recognised industrial and non-industrial civil service trade unions.

Dr Archibald MLA noted in her statement: “Civil servants, like other public servants, have been waiting some time for their 2023 pay award against the context of a cost-of-living crisis and pressures on their own household budgets.”

The MLA continued: “Following meetings with recognised civil service unions last week, I am pleased to have been able to move quickly to make this pay offer for civil servants which recognises their role in the delivery of public services.

“I hope staff will look favourably on the offer and that unions’ consultation with their members will proceed as swiftly as possible so we can get pay to staff as soon as practicable.

“Our public sector workers are at the heart of service delivery. We have a challenging journey of enhancing services in the time ahead for which we will need the expertise of our staff.”

The offer in full includes: a 5% increase to the majority of civil service pay scales; bringing up the pay of the lowest paid staff (Administrative Assistant and analogous grades, including Industrial 1 staff) to the voluntary Living Wage Foundation rates of £12 an hour or £23,177 annually, a 10% increase. It also includes performance-related progression; and a £1,500 non-consolidated payment to staff eligible for the 2023 pay award, subject to the detail in the written offer to unions.

It comes following negotiations with Civil Service trade unions, with Unions set to now confer with their members.

The offer follows industrial action by workers calling for pay parity across the UK in January, which was one of the biggest strikes seen in Northern Ireland in recent history by public sector workers, including civil servants.

Health, education, public transport, road workers and civil servants were among those striking for improved pay and conditions and increased funding for public services in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Northern Ireland Committee’s ‘Generalised Day of Action’ on January 18.