Civil servants and government manual workers have been awarded a 2.3% pay rise following arbitration - and Tynwald members will get the extra 2.3% too.

The move, which came after no agreement could be reached, will cost government an extra £2.7m.

Meanwhile, health and social care workers on Manx pay terms and conditions, some 1,200 in total, have been awarded a 2.5 per cent increase for last year, again following arbitration.

That increase will cost £1.7m.

Prospect union negotiations officer Angela Moffatt said: ’Do I think manual workers, prison officers, social workers and nurses deserve a meaningful pay rise? Yes I do.

’Criticism of the public sector workforce and of the civil service in particular has gone too far and is not justified. They are the backbone of this island, the fabric which holds this island together.’

The union had put in a claim for 7.9% which was the RPI rate of inflation in March plus 1% but Ms Moffatt admitted: ’We always knew that was not achievable’.

But she said the government had been ’inflexible’ on its offer of 1%. which is in line with the 1% cap on the salary budget announced in Alfred Cannan’s Budget.

She insisted that as other budgets cannot be used to fund salaries, the pay award would not impact on services - unless staff are cut to fund it.

A government spokesman confirmed that following negotiations within the Public Services Commission joint negotiating committee on a pay award for the year 2017-18, agreement could not be reached and the matter was referred for independent binding arbitration.

He said: ’The arbitrator has determined that the pay award should be 2.3%. The award applies to PSC civil servants and manual and craft workers and those groups who adopt PSC terms by analogy of which there are approximately 3,400 FTE.

’The cost of the pay award amounts to £2.7m. The 2017 Budget included a 1% cost cap for pay awards. Therefore, the additional 1.3% will have to be found from within existing budgets.

’A separate arbitration process for staff groups within Health and Social Care, for the year 2016/17, has also taken place. In this case the arbitrator awarded 2.5%.’

Ms Moffatt insisted that pay rises in the public sector benefited the private sector too - as it meant extra money circulating in the Manx economy.

She said the unions had agreed the policy on new terms for new starters which had saved millions of pounds a year off the salary budget and the pay award could be funded from those savings.

In contrast, she said, Tynwald members ’at the first hurdle’ had excluded themselves from the new starters policy.

The 2.3 per cent increase will take Tynwald members’ basic pay from £40,417 to £41,346 as from April this year.

Announcing in his Budget speech that the 1 per cent pay cap would stay, the Treasury Minister urged those charged with negotiating pay awards to act responsibly, warning that each 1% awarded over the cost cap would need further savings of £3.5m.

Figures released in Tynwald last week show the number employed in public service actually increased last year from 8,234 in 2016 to 8,328 at the end of June this year - with the full time equivalent rising from 7,319 to 7,424.