A union leader claims government plans to scrap the Whitley Council - the pay negotiating body for public sector manual workers - is already a done deal.
But the Office of Human Resources has insisted that no formal decision has yet been made by the Council of Ministers and indeed no report will go to CoMin until after the summer recess.
Jonty Arkell, who is chairman of the employees’ side of Whitley Council, has accused Chief Minister Allan Bell of announcing in a radio interview that the Whitley Council would be ‘done away with’ - and questioned why the unions and the staff they represent had not been informed first.
Under the proposals a single employing authority for government staff will be created, replacing both the Civil Service Commission and the Whitley Council which negotiated pay body for some 2,500 public sector manual and craft workers.
In his interview on Manx Radio, Mr Bell said: ‘Later this year we are going to be in the process of setting up a new employing authority altogether, the Public Services Commission.’
He said this would merge civil servants and Whitley manual workers in a new body with terms and conditions reviewed ‘in due course’.
Mr Arkell, who had urged workers to take part in the public consultation process, said: ‘The unions expected to be informed first - not the population on the Isle of Man in a radio interview.
‘I’ve not been informed, Unite knew nothing about it. The public consultation meant nothing. Why are the people directly involved being so obviously denigrated? We don’t do anything without due democratic process.’
Consultation on the proposal to establish a Public Services Commission was launched at the beginning of May by the Civil Service Commission under the government’s Agenda for Change programme.
The Chief Minister says the existing structure is ‘not fit for purpose’ and he has described Whitley Council as ‘anachronism’.
But Mr Arkell rejected the accusation that Whitley was not prepared to change with the times.
He said: ‘We’ve proved him wrong. We agreed a pay freeze with the guarantee of no job losses until 2014. That has actually saved the jobs of people who would have been made redundant. This demonstrates our capacity to be reasonable and realistic.
‘But how does Mr Bell repay us? By announcing to the entire nation without any communication that this is a done deal.’
He said the rightful place for any announcement on the future of Whitley Council would have been the next meeting of the industrial relations forum later this month.
But a spokesman for the Office of Human Resources said the process had not yet got to that stage.
He said the public consultation was originally due to close on May 31 but was extended by a fortnight following a request by the employees’ side of Whitley Council.
‘The consultation responses are being reviewed and there are quite a number. Consultation responses should be published withing three months so we expected that to be done soon,’ he said. ‘At this point, no report has gone to CoMin. That will happen after the summer recess. Then it will be a matter for CoMin to decide as to the best way forward. No formal decision has yet been made.’