Dismay over pay alignment

Embryonic plans to align the pay and working conditions of people doing the same jobs for different public sector employers have met a muted response from HR professionals.

Local Government Employers director Jan Parkinson last week said the public sector labour market was being damaged by workers doing similar jobs but for employers with differing terms and conditions.

She mooted a new "public sector worker" status to allow staff to move between councils, the police and NHS without suffering changes in their pensions, pay or conditions.

The problem is said to be particularly acute in shared services partnerships where NHS and council staff — particularly occupational therapists and social workers — find themselves working side by side doing the same jobs, but paid different rates.

Speaking to the Public Sector People Managers' Association annual conference in Brighton, Ms Parkinson said the system would bring stability to the work market and stop public sector employers poaching each other's staff.

But an audience show of hands showed the vast majority of delegates were against the plan. LGC estimated that 90% disapproved.

After the session, Ms Parkinson said agreements on the pay structures could be reached locally. "If we don't get to grips with this at the local level, we need to rethink how we can do it," she said.

Joan Munro, national adviser on workforce strategy at the Improvement & Development Agency, said: "If we're going to organise services together, we need to integrate working."

Ms Munro said the integration of health and social care functions with staff on different terms and conditions could, in the long term, result in litigation.

Heather Wakefield, head of local government at Unison, said that in an age of joined-up services it was "simply not fair" to have staff doing the same jobs for different pay and conditions.

But she said of the public service status concept idea: "We're a long way from having a Unison view on it."