New unified pay scales, which end the two-tier public service pay system introduced in 2011, will be effective from November 2013. An official circular, issued last week, confirms that new pay scales for staff who entered the public service after January 2011 will be backdated to last November.

The 2011 scales, which introduced a further 10% pay cut for new entrants – on top of earlier pay cuts and the so-called ‘pension levy’ – are to be withdrawn.

The circular also confirms that the 10% cut in allowances for new entrants, also introduced in January 2011, is rescinded with effect from 1^st November 2013. The abolition of the two-tier pay system was a priority for unions in last year’s Haddington Road negotiations.

The changes, first reported in the IMPACT members’ ebulletin last October, will see post-2011 entrants ascend to pre-2011 scale points after two years, or less in some cases. As a result, most staff recruited after January 2011 will be earning more than their current scale allows once they reach their third scale point. They will then ascend the same pre-2011 incremental pay scales as everyone else in their grade.

Many lower paid grades – including clerical officers and service officers – will see some benefit after one, rather than two, years.

Unified pay scales for general civil service grades have been compiled and the same approach is to be applied across the public service. As a result, all staff in any given grade will be on common pre-2011 pay scales, albeit with up to two additional post-2011 points added at the bottom of the scales.

The changes will apply to all staff who joined the civil and public service after January 2011, including those already in post. There will be no change for staff who joined the public service on pre-2011 pay scales.

IMPACT and other public service unions negotiated the changes after the Haddington Road agreement was accepted by a majority of unions. Haddington Road conceded the union demand that the two-tier pay system must end.