The one-year Voluntary Exit Scheme for the Northern Ireland Civil Service was launched yesterday and staff who are eligible have been invited to apply.
It is anticipated that in the region of 2,400 full time equivalent posts will be suppressed and that given the level of part-time working, this will require more than this number of staff to leave via the Scheme. The NICS employs around 27,500 staff and accounts for around 13% of the wider public sector.
Finance and Personnel Minister Simon Hamilton said: “The scope and speed of this Voluntary Exit Scheme is unprecedented in the history of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and it is necessary to deliver the pay bill reductions for Departments in line with the 2015/16 budget allocations agreed by the Northern Ireland Executive in January 2015.”
NICS Departments consider that the pay bill savings they need to make via the Voluntary Exit Scheme in 2015/16 equate to approximately £26 million and around £88 million per year thereafter.
Applications to the Scheme will run from 2 March to 27 March 2015 and the first tranche of staff selected to leave will exit at the end of September 2015, while the last to leave will, subject to available resources, do so by 31 March 2016.
The Minister said: “It is important to emphasise that this one year scheme is entirely voluntary and not part of a process that will lead to compulsory redundancy.
“I know that many staff will want to take account of their personal circumstances when considering whether to apply or not. I would encourage all staff to read the Scheme information booklet which sets out the terms of the Scheme and how to apply.”
The Scheme, which is open to virtually all permanent NICS staff, has been developed to operate within the 2015-16 financial year only. Compensation will be one month’s pay per year of service up to a maximum of 21 months and for those over their normal scheme pension age, compensation payable will be limited to a maximum of six months’ pay. The first £30,000 of compensation payments will be tax free.
The Scheme includes some protection for lower paid staff whereby anyone earning less than the maximum of the Executive Officer 2 payscale will have their compensation payment calculated using the maximum of that scale (currently £24,728).
Referring to the ongoing business delivery of Civil Service Departments, the Minister said: “I am conscious of the need to maintain business delivery and a range of measures are being put in place, including redeployment arrangements to move staff into essential posts left vacant by staff who leave from this Voluntary Exit Scheme. Measures also include setting maximum numbers to be released within grades and releasing staff in phases between September 2015 and March 2016, all of which will contribute towards protecting business delivery within Departments.”
In addition to the posts that will be closed as a result of the Voluntary Exit Scheme, around 1,100 full time equivalent posts have already been suppressed through a range of other strategies including a freeze on volume recruitment and substantive promotion.
The Scheme has been developed with and informed by all Departments. The Trade Union Side has been consulted throughout the Scheme’s development, both at Departmental level and centrally through the Whitley Executive machinery. Virtually all permanent NICS staff are eligible to apply to the Scheme, although there are a small number of exceptions which have been agreed by the Permanent Secretaries’ Group, on the rationale that the resulting vacancy would have to be filled by recruitment, thereby negating the pay bill saving. Departments will have informed those staff in this category prior to the Scheme launch.
As part of the Public Sector Reform and Restructuring arrangements provided for in the Stormont House Agreement, a range of Voluntary Exit Schemes are being developed across the wider public sector over the next four years, but the focus for the Northern Ireland Civil Service is to generate the required savings during 2015/16.
The Stormont House Agreement provided access of up to £700 million of funding over four years to facilitate exit schemes across the whole of the NI public sector with £200 million available in each of the 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 and £100million in 2018/19. The NICS Scheme will operate within the 2015/16 financial year.
NICS Departments consider that the pay bill savings they need to make via the voluntary exit scheme in 2015/16 equate to approximately £26 million and around £88 million per year thereafter.
For staff working full time, an on-line calculator is available for them to work out what they may get.
Staff who work part-time will shortly receive a letter from Civil Service Pensions Branch providing them with their likely compensation under the Scheme.
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