Scottish Government 2021 employee pay review: FOI release

Information requested

1. Please state the effective date (day, month and year) of your organisation’s 2021 pay review.

2. If the 2021 pay review has yet to be finalised please state the month in which you anticipate it will be concluded.

3. Please state the employee group/s covered by the 2021 pay review.

4. Please state the total number of employees covered by the 2021 pay review.

5. Please provide a copy of your 2021 pay agreement (if applicable) or generic pay circular sent to employees (that is one that does not identify any individual employee) outlining the outcome of the latest pay review if there are no collective negotiations.

6. Please state the % consolidated basic pay rise received by the lowest-paid adult (aged 18 and over) employee as a result of the latest pay review, excluding the effect of any incremental progression, merit pay or bonuses.

7.  If an employee’s annual pay award is determined solely according to an assessment of their individual performance (commonly known as a merit increase) as opposed to an across-the-board pay rises (where all employees generally receive the same increase irrespective of their individual performance) please state the percentage of the paybill allocated to fund these awards, the range of increases and whether or not the awards are consolidated.

8. If any employees were eligible for individual performance-related payments or bonuses over and above the general pay rise please state the range of increases (either as a percentage of their base salary or a cash amount as applicable), whether or not they were consolidated into basic pay and please state the overall % of the paybill allocated to fund these awards.

9. Please state the overall paybill increase as a result of the latest pay review expressed as a percentage of the paybill.

10. Please state the name of the union/unions party to your main collective agreement covering pay and conditions if there are collective negotiations.

11. Please provide the name and contact details of the person/s responsible for overseeing your organisation’s annual pay review.

Response

1. The SGM pay review date is 1 April.

2. The basic elements of Public Sector Pay Policy will be implemented as an interim award with end-May salaries.  Discussion with the recognised unions have commenced and it is too early to anticipate when these will be concluded.

3. Details of the bodies making up SGM is given at Annex B.

4. SGM covers approx. 11,200 staff.

5. The basic elements of Pay Policy being paid as an interim award are available via Public Sector Pay Policy.

6. The lowest pay step in the SGM pay structure increased by £800 (4%).

7. The SGM pay system has 8 pay ranges within 3 broad pay bands.  Each pay range has defined pay steps.  Pay progression is included as part of the interim pay award where, subject to satisfactory performance, staff move through the pay range towards the maximum by one pay step.

The cost of progression in SGM is approx. £12m representing approx. 3% of total paybill.  Individual consolidated pay progression increases range from £466 to £5,512.

8. There are no consolidated or non-consolidated performance-related bonus payments.

9.  As a result of implementing the interim award the SGM paybill has increased by approx. 4%.

10. The recognised trade unions within SGM are:

• PCS;
• Prospect; and 
• FDA. 

11. James McConnell, Head of Employee Relations, Reward & Expenses. James.McConnell2@gov.scot

Education Scotland, Transport Scotland, the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, and Disclosure Scotland are Executive Agencies of the Scottish Government. Staff within these bodies have a common set of terms and conditions of employment (including those related to pay and reward) and are part of a larger staffing group known as the Scottish Government Main (SGM) bargaining unit. SGM consists of the Core Directorates of the Scottish Government along with a number of Executive Agencies, Non-Ministerial Departments, and Non-Departmental Public Bodies. The bodies making up

SGM are detailed in Annex B.

Pay reviews are subject to the terms of Public Sector Pay Policy and discussions are taken forward by Scottish Government People Directorate (HR) with any outcome, i.e. a pay award, applied equally to all the organisations in SGM.

About FOI
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FOI202100199417 - Annex B

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