The National Crime Agency (NCA) needs to reform pay or face a staffing crisis, says the FDA.

The trade union has recently submitted evidence to the National Crime Agency Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB), which argues that the NCA is too restricted by “unreasonable Government restraints on their ability to reward their employees adequately”.

“In our evidence submitted in 2016, we reported that the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicted that labour shortages in the public sector would be a growing risk,” the FDA’s evidence states. “This  remains a risk for the NCA because of the niche skills sets required from component parts of its workforce.”

The evidence goes on to explain that senior roles in the agency “will have greater difficulty with recruitment and retention because of market rate disparity”, as salary levels for senior grades in the public sector have fallen even further behind private sector wages.

The trade union is calling for a pay structure which allows faster pay progression for all grades. 

The evidence was collated by National Officer Wynne Parry, who said: “FDA members in the NCA have seen disproportionate cuts to real-terms pay because of the Government’s restrictive pay policy.

“As our evidence to the NCA Remuneration Review Body demonstrates, failure to address this risks the loss of invaluable expertise from the Agency at a time when it faces new and greatly increased challenges from organised crime.”

The FDA will present oral evidence to the Review Body later this month. The NCARRB advises on pay levels for NCA staff with powers who are unable to take industrial action. The FDA bargains directly for staff without powers the FDA with the NCA along with other unions.

The FDA’s written evidence to the NCRRB can be downloaded from the union’s website.