Ministers’ allies are peddling myths on Senior Civil Service pay, says FDA union

3 Aug 2017 01:32 PM

Responding to reports that International Development Secretary Priti Patel has called for Senior Civil Service pay to be further “restrained”, FDA General Secretary Dave Penman said:

“This latest misrepresentation of public sector pay from ‘sources close to’ the International Development Secretary demonstrates a blatant disregard for the Government’s own research.

“The source peddles tired myths about public sector perks and claims that pay is ‘out of step with many other comparable external roles’ - despite the Government’s figures showing that Directors General earn 62% less than their private sector counterparts.

“Across the Senior Civil Service as a whole, take-home pay has plummeted by 23% in real terms since 2010 and the Government’s own advisers - the Senior Salaries Review Body - last month warned that the current approach to SCS pay is damaging morale and increasing the risk of recruitment and retention problems.

“As for the dismissive claim that civil servants can afford to take a pay cut because they are not going to ‘walk into better paid jobs in the real world’, the Government’s own analysis shows that many of them are now choosing to do just that. More than than half of all Senior Civil Servants who quit last year cited pay as a significant reason for their exit.

“While Ms Patel’s allies have chosen the easy option of briefing against those who can’t answer back, our members’ sense of public duty means they will continue to do their best to serve. The FDA will continue to represent them and their case for an end to the counterproductive 1% pay cap.”

Notes for editors

  1. The FDA is the trade union for the UK's senior public servants and professionals at grade HEO and above. FDA membership includes more than 18,000 senior civil servants, diplomats, Government policy advisors, prosecutors, tax professionals, economists, solicitors and other professionals working across Government and the NHS.
  2. The FDA (formerly the First Division Association) should be referred to simply as "The FDA" and can be described as "the senior public servants’ union". 
  3. The FDA can be found on Twitter @FDA_union.
  4. For further information contact:

Matt Foster, Communications Officer, tel: 07982 514 524.

Tommy Newell, Communications Officer, tel: 020 7401 5555 or 07738 729 145.