Senior civil servants demand pay rise due to Brexit workload 'pushing Whitehall to its limits'

‘The previous Chancellor’s policy of public sector pay restraint has led to a demoralised workforce and a civil service now reliant on expensive contractors for new hires’

The call from the FDA is the latest sign of a strain in relations between Whitehall officials and Ms May’s administration (nataliej/Flickr)

Senior civil servants are demanding better pay conditions to deal with the Brexit workload that unions claim is pushing Whitehall “to its limits”.

The First Division Association (FDA), which represents senior mandarins and diplomats, said pay does not “remotely compare with the wider marketplace”.The union adds that George Osborne’s policy of cutting public sector pay while he was Chancellor has led to a “demoralised workforce”.

The call from the FDA is the latest sign of a strain in relations between Whitehall officials and Theresa May’s administration and comes just days after the resignation of Sir Ivan Rogers as Britain's ambassador to the EU.

FDA general secretary Dave Penman said: “Fresh from reducing the size of their departments, the SCS (senior civil service) is now tasked with implementing Brexit on top of all of the Government’s existing priorities.

“Some haven’t seen a pay rise in a decade, all have seen their pay cut in real terms by around a quarter. The strain of the pay freeze and staff reductions is taking its toll. The previous chancellor's policy of public sector pay restraint has led to a demoralised workforce and a civil service now reliant on expensive contractors and salary premiums for new hires.

“This Chancellor needs to take a more realistic position and heed the FDA’s call for real investment in the SCS, not a never ending series of temporary fixes dreamt up on the hoof that end up costing the public more than before the pay restraint began.”

In a survey submitted as evidence to the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) by the FDA, 94 per cent of respondents said their pay framework was “not fit for purpose”.

But the former Conservative leader and Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith, a prominent Leave campaigner, told the Daily Mail: “This is total nonsense”.

He continued: “Senior civil servants should be embarrassed that their union is asking for a pay rise at a time when the entire public sector is subject to necessary pay restraint.”

“These officials are simply being asked to do their job. They should be relishing the challenge, and the best ones will be.”

Steve Baker, chairman of the influential European research group of Tory MPs, said: “For normal people earning normal wages these civil servants already look very well rewarded.”