Guest Blog 38

NPS: Summer of Discontent?

There are several NPS offices where summer leave is still awaiting approval and yes, some staff have booked and paid for their holidays already. I understand that a particular NPS problem post TR split, is the number of staff working reduced or condensed hours, leaving offices under staffed on Mondays and Fridays already, without the pressure of Summer Leave. 

Some areas have been quick to anticipate this and advertised for report writers on a fee basis so they at least can alleviate some of the looming pressures. But what happens during Summer in those areas where senior managers have failed to plan? Staff will have to cover colleagues’ work with reports coming in thick and fast (remember the Court Team staff will be on Leave too) and some colleagues will also be taking reports from other areas (written in their own time for payment but, leaving no spare capacity). NPS staff have been told “toil no longer exists” so why should they work longer hours unpaid?

There is a real risk to the health and wellbeing of staff and for some this has already resulted in work making them ill. Yes, certified by their GPs as “work related stress” so it is not in dispute in terms of a legally defensible diagnosis. So, given the lack of strategic planning by the employer (in some areas) and the entirely foreseeable consequences of unmanageable workloads over the coming months, staff are likely to suffer increased stress levels. Something has to be done.

Is now the time to offer paid overtime to practitioners? This would put some control and a sense of worth back in the hands of those who deliver the NPS front line service. I notice on the Shared Services claim forms there is a NOMS overtime drop down from the menu, indicating there is capacity to pay this (for some, so who is getting paid overtime already?). So why should staff not be offered appropriate reward for going above and beyond to ensure service delivery?

I am sad that this has not been anticipated by the Unions, but there we are. The point is, the employer does not hold all the cards at this time, staff do. I ask readers to consider what we have lost thus far in a climate where we have been taken utterly for granted. Well, this is the time the employer really needs us so it is in our hands to deliver extra….. or not. Now there’s a thought, too…..

A PO