Member Briefing on Public Services Reform (Scotland) Bill
Pay and conditions of staff employed by Non-Departmental Public Bodies

UNISON campaigns for better public services

Introduction
UNISON Scotland is supporting amendments 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 and 222 to the Public Services Reform Bill that is currently before the Scottish Parliament to establish new bargaining arrangements for staff employed by Non-Departmental Public Bodies.

This briefing explains why we believe such amendment is necessary and the actions we are encouraging members to take in support of this campaign.

Why is amendment needed? 
The stated aim of this Bill is to simplify public bodies and improve the exercise of public functions. One of the key issues impacting on the effectiveness of public bodies is the arrangements for negotiating the pay and conditions of staff employed by NDPBs. This is reflected in the Finance Committee’s inquiry into public sector pay.

At present each NDPB has its own individual negotiating structure that is closely directed by Scottish Ministers. This results in a lengthy and costly process that has resulted in many disputes in recent years and fundamentally undermined staff confidence and the service to the public.  In summary the problems include:

• The timescale for preparing the guidance that means that pay settlement dates are missed and negotiations take place under guidance covering different years.
• Pay guidelines are introduced with limited consultation at national level and then form the basis for very constrained negotiations at local level. This undermines the concept of collective bargaining and disputes inevitably end up at ministerial level where the real decision rests.
• It takes too long for the Pay Unit to respond to NDPB management’s proposals and there are further delays as issues are clarified and approvals sought during negotiations.
• The guidance itself is very complex (arguably unnecessarily so) and organisations and their trade unions have struggled to follow them. This has led to lengthy disagreements, confusion and further delay.
• These problems have been exacerbated due to the complexity of many negotiations as employers grapple with equal pay and harmonisation and the associated costs. It also appears to have stretched the expertise of the Pay Unit that is drawn from staff within the finance function.

Sadly very little has been done to implement the recommendations of the Finance Committee report. Whilst ministers are sympathetic to streamlining the process they wish to proceed by consensus. That is of course normally the correct approach. However, in this case there are a large number of disparate organisations involved and consensus is difficult to achieve.

What is the proposed solution? 

As one of the Bill’s aims is to streamline the quango state and improve efficiency it remains open to parliament to force the pace on this issue. Whilst it would not be appropriate for primary legislation to set out in detail a new negotiating structure, it could set out an enabling framework.

UNISON Scotland’s preferred solution is two negotiating committees. One covering Executive Agencies, possibly linked to the Scottish Government Main Bargaining Unit. The second would cover NDPBs and possibly Public Corporations. Two committees recognise the reality that some bodies are simply arms length civil service organisations whose pay and conditions have traditionally been linked with the civil service. The other committee recognises that many NDPBs and public corporations drew their staff, terms and conditions and culture from a wider background (primarily in local government) and therefore there is only a limited link to the civil service.

The advantages of this approach include:

• It recognises the reality of the decision making process on public service pay in Scotland and the detailed involvement of Scottish Ministers.
• By having two committees it still enables the different NDPB and civil service cultures and approaches to pay and conditions to be reflected in terms and conditions.
• It streamlines the pay process and would avoid the time consuming and expensive charade of local negotiations on matters that are really decided elsewhere.
• This is consistent with Scottish Government policy on streamlining processes in the Efficient Government programme, Crearer Review and NDPB rationalisation programme. Another good example is the proposal for one pay bargaining table in Further Education.
• It would limit the fairly regular procession of local disputes that end up at ministerial level.
• It would formally enable the HR and other expertise in NDPBs to be brought into the bargaining process where it matters, rather than leaving these matters solely to a unit of the Finance Department whose main expertise is in the financial processes.

Obviously the arrangements would require some detailed discussion including the scope and membership of these negotiating committees. The amendment therefore only provides a framework to enable those discussions.

Scottish Ministers could of course establish such committees without legislation. However, for the reasons set out above they have been unable to make progress. The amendments proposed therefore would give the Finance Committee a route to the practical implementation of the recommendations in their recent report.

Member Action

We are asking members to write to their MSP (contact details on the Scottish Parliament web site) asking them to support amendments 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 and 222. A personal letter in your own words using the information above is best.

A model letter is set out below:

Dear ……………… MSP

Public Services Reform Bill

As you will be aware the stated aim of this Bill is to simplify public bodies and improve the exercise of public functions. One of the key issues impacting on the effectiveness of public bodies is the arrangements for negotiating the pay and conditions of staff employed by NDPBs. This is reflected in the findings of the Finance Committee’s recent report into public sector pay.

At present each NDPB has its own individual negotiating structure that is closely directed by Scottish Ministers. This results in a lengthy and costly process that has resulted in many disputes in recent years and fundamentally undermined staff confidence and the service to the public.  Sadly very little has been done to implement the recommendations of the Finance Committee report.

My trade union UNISON is supporting amendments to the Bill (amendments 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 and 222) that would establish negotiating bodies to determine NDPB pay at Scottish level. Such an approach would  recognise the reality of the decision making process on public service pay in Scotland, streamline the pay process and avoid the time consuming and expensive charade of local negotiations on matters that are really decided elsewhere.

It seems to me that this is consistent with Scottish Government policy on streamlining processes in the Efficient Government programme, Crearer Review and NDPB rationalisation programme. Obviously the arrangements would require some detailed discussion including the scope and membership of these negotiating committees. That is why the amendment only provides a framework to enable those discussions to take place.

I hope you will be able to support these amendments and I should be grateful for an indication of your position.

Yours……

Please forward replies from MSPs to: Dave Watson d.watson@unison.co.uk

Set out below is a list of MSPs who sit on the Finance Committee and will be considering the amendments. Letters to them if you are a constituent or in their list area would be particularly helpful.

Further information:

Contact details for MSPs:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/apps2/msp/msphome/default.aspx

Details of the Bill and amendments can be viewed at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/26-PubSerRef/index.htm
(UNISON is supporting amendments 217, 218, 219, 220, 221 and 222 which you will find under the 5th marshalling list of amendments - a pdf document linked from the page.)

Finance Committee’s inquiry into public sector pay http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/finance/reports-09/fir09-04.htm

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