7.— (1) Subject to the provisions of this section and section 8, for the F2[period of 5 years] beginning on 1 July 2013—

(a) no increment shall be awarded to a public servant; and

(b) the operation of the pay scale that applies in respect of a public servant shall stand suspended,

and with the effect that—

(i) the point on that pay scale that shall be applicable in respect of a public servant on F2[1 July 2018] shall be that which was applicable on 1 July 2013 in respect of him or her, and

(ii) the operation of that pay scale, on and from F2[1 July 2018], shall be by reference to service of the public servant on and from F2[1 July 2018], but this is subject to subsection (2).

(2) Subsection (1)(b)(ii) does not operate to exclude for the purpose of the operation of the pay scale so much of the service of the public servant, before 1 July 2013, as would have been reckoned for the purpose of the next immediate increment that, but for the suspension of the pay scale by virtue of subsection (1), would have fallen to be awarded to him or her on or after 1 July 2013.

(3) The reference in subsection (1) to the pay scale that is applicable in respect of a public servant (being a public servant to whom the amendment hereafter mentioned relates) is a reference to that pay scale as it stands adjusted by virtue or in consequence of the amendment of the Act of 2009 made by section 2.

(4) For the avoidance of doubt, subsection (1) has effect in relation to a pay scale that, in consequence of a public servant’s appointment or promotion to a position after 1 July 2013 (but before 1 July 2016), falls to be applied subsequent to 1 July 2013 as it has effect in relation to a pay scale that applies to a public servant on 1 July 2013, but with the substitution in that subsection for the reference to 1 July 2013 (where it secondly occurs) of a reference to the date of such appointment or promotion of the public servant.

(5) Notwithstanding anything in the preceding subsections of this section, subsection (1) shall—

(a) apply to a public servant only to the extent specified in the agreement, or

(b) apply to a public servant with such modifications as are specified in the agreement,

to whom a collective agreement relates and which agreement—

(i) for the time being stands registered with the Labour Relations Commission for the purposes of this section, and

(ii) provides for the application to such a public servant of subsection (1) in the manner described in paragraph (a) or (b), as the case may be.

(6) A collective agreement for the purposes of subsection (5) may be entered into at any time (whether before or after 1 July 2013).

(7) In this section—

“collective agreement” means an agreement by or on behalf of a public service body on the one hand, and by or on behalf of a body or bodies representative of the public servants to whom the agreement relates on the other hand;

“public servant” has the meaning it has in the Act of 2010.