22 September 2006
Treasury officials this week rejected accusations by trade unions that they dragged their feet over wage deals for 2006 so that they would fall under Chancellor Gordon Brown's strict new 2% pay ceiling.
A Treasury spokesman told Public Finance: 'All civil service pay settlements were agreed in August, and where other decisions are outstanding this is because lead departments have not come to us with their business case. We expect this to happen shortly.'
The Public and Commercial Services union, which represents more than 300,000 civil servants, last week accused the Treasury of delaying the approval of deals this year, to reduce the inflationary pressure of rises above 2.25% or multi-year deals.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka told PF that only 24 pay bargaining units across Whitehall had concluded deals for 2006, while around 200 bargaining units have still to complete negotiations or receive deals.
Brown and Treasury officials back the current fragmented regime, on the basis that it reduces costs.
PFsep2006
