Union responds to select committee’s call for a ‘Top Pay Commission’

The FDA today responded in the media to the Public Administration Select Committee's call for the establishment of a 'Top Pay Commission' to set clear principles and benchmarks for those determining pay for Senior public sector officials.

Speaking on the Sky News Sunrise programme, FDA general secretary Jonathan Baume said: "[We need to] look at how we can set fair principles and take into account what is happening in the private sector. One problem we see is that people brought into the civil service from the private sector are paid perhaps twice as much as an ordinary civil servant.

Baume said the Government was proposing a pay freeze for senior civil servants next year and the Conservatives - were they to form a government - have suggested that all public servants paid more than £18,000 would have a pay freeze in 2011.

He added: "We will need to consider what is happening with inflation and we will need to understand [how] the next government after the general election intends to take forward public expenditure. But this will be a very difficult and testing time for senior public servants who have immensely difficult jobs to do in delivering key services right across the UK."

Press release
FDA gives cautious welcome to MPs' recommendations on senior pay

Public Administration Select Committee's report
PASC report: Top Pay in the Public Sector