UNIONS for senior civil servants called for reform of the sector’s pay system today in a letter to Cabinet Office minister Jeremy Quin, describing it as broken beyond repair.

Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy and FDA general secretary Dave Penman asked for an urgent meeting with Mr Quin to discuss a pay structure that “rewards talent, knowledge and expertise” in order to address recruitment and retainment issues.

Earlier this year, Prospect members undertook their largest industrial action in a decade and the FDA announced its first national industrial action ballot on pay in 40 years.

The actions came after the government published its pay remit guidance for 2023-24 without meaningful consultation with the unions and offering no additional payment for 2022-23.

The disputes were resolved after workers secured an improved offer from the government, but both unions say that there is still a pressing need to rebuild the Civil Service so that it properly recognises and rewards the skills and experience of its workforce after a decade of pay decline.

In the letter, the union leaders said: “The last few months have … shown beyond doubt that the current Civil Service pay system is broken beyond repair.

“[Its] pay structures have remained largely unreformed for three decades.

“The remit process not only prevents individual employers developing a strategic approach to their pay and reward but it also prevents any sort of strategic approach at the centre and is actively hindering other workforce strategies you want to progress for the whole of the Civil Service.”