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Today's blog post by the General Secretary:- 

Unions secure EVR agreement in Purple Futures CRCs

After several months of hard work and considerable input from Napo negotiators supported by our local reps, an agreement has been reached with the employers across the Purple Futures owned CRC's. This covers Early Voluntary Retirement and Pay and employment protection for staff who are to be seconded into the Interserve Professional service centre.

Commenting on the news of the agreement Napo General Secretary Ian Lawrence said: "Whilst not achieving everything that the unions wanted, this agreement represents a significant achievement, reflecting the hard work of full-time negotiators and Napo's elected Officials at National and local level."

The agreement also sends a signal to other CRC providers of the benefits of meaningful engagement with the trades unions to avoid compulsory redundancies. It also stresses the importance of why CRC staff should belong to a trade union.

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Purple Futures Joint Union Bulletin No. 3 

Purple Futures Restructuring

Napo and UNISON appreciate that this restructure has been extremely stressful for you and your colleagues, but please remember you are not alone. If you have any questions, please contact your local Napo or UNISON representative.

Napo and UNISON reps have worked hard to raise your workplace concerns with the employers at local meetings and at the Cross CRC Trade Union Forum meetings, which bring Napo and UNISON representatives together with management from all five PF CRCs.

At national level we will continue to work with Purple Futures to get the best possible outcomes for all our members. We hope to meet with Purple Futures in the near future to discuss how the Cross CRC Trade Union Forum work best for members and the employers into the future.

At our request Purple Futures has set up employer/trade union working groups to look at issues such as assistive technology, stress, violence at work and workloads. We have also raised concerns about how the new ways of working will work and impact our members, particularly in regards to the flex teams, estates and health and safety.

Napo and UNISON can’t do the work we do without the help of our local representatives. Please contact your union if you are interested in becoming a union representative, or if you want to help out your union in any other way.

Protecting You During Organisational Change

UNISON and Napo have been working closely together to protect and promote our members’ interests in the organisational change process which is likely to see about 200 staff made redundant and another 70 or so staff seconded to the Professional Service Centre sites run by Interserve Justice. Here’s what we have done:

• Represented members who have been unhappy with their redeployment options
• Improved the Organisational Change Policy and Procedure to give better pay protection, as follows, to staff who suffer a loss of income as a result of redeployment:
• Improved the voluntary exit payment for staff who are made redundant and who sign a settlement agreement, to give 4.5 weeks pay for each year of service. This is one of the best deals achieved by the unions in any CRC to date. Full details of the package can be found below.
• Negotiated better safeguards for staff who sign a secondment agreement to work for the Professional Service Centre, including rights to continuing trade union representation in Interserve Justice and clearer/fairer procedures in a number of key respects. See below for more details.

Enhanced Compulsory Redundancy Package

UNISON and Napo are pleased to report that Interserve has agreed to pay an enhanced compulsory redundancy package to staff who are made redundant, and who agree to sign a settlement agreement to leave their CRC. Purple Futures has made clear that this enhanced redundancy package applies to this particular restructure only and should not be seen as applying to any future restructures or redundancies. No doubt Napo and UNISON will return to discuss this issue with Purple Futures in due course.

We have been in talks with the Company for many months to secure this package and, although it does not match the National Negotiating Council (NNC) Enhanced Voluntary Redundancy terms in all respects*, it will provide significant additional benefit, over and above statutory terms, to members who are now facing redundancy. Staff over 55, who are made redundant, are also entitled to immediate payment of their benefits under the Local Government Pension Scheme.

Here are the full details of the exit payments:

•  All Interserve/Purple Futures CRC permanent employees with two years or more qualifying service (service that counts as continuous service) that are redundant will be entitled to a redundancy payment based on actual basic weekly pay at the time of termination, and not the statutory rate. 
• Redundancy for those under the age of 55 (Subject to a signed Settlement Agreement)
• The redundancy payment will be paid, subject to a maximum of 67.5 weeks’ pay and reckonable service of 15 complete years, as follows:
• Four and a half weeks’ pay for each year of completed service (any statutory redundancy payment is included in the compensation payable).
• Redundancy for those aged 55 or over (Subject to a signed Settlement Agreement) The redundancy payment will be paid, subject to a maximum of 67.5 weeks’ pay in accordance with the above, together with immediate payment of the standard retirement pension and a standard retirement grant (i.e. pension lump sum).
• Notice periods: The general position is that permanent employees that exit the organisation with an enhanced redundancy package will be expected to work out their full notice period and there will be no additional pay in lieu of notice for anybody 
• leaving with this enhanced package. Where it has been pre-arranged that people leave before their contractual notice period has expired, statutory deductions for tax and National Insurance Contributions will be made in respect of the period of unexpired notice and this will be reflected in the illustrative figures. However, under these exceptional circumstances the organisation will make an additional payment to meet those statutory deductions due to ensure that the employee is not in any worse position than they would have been if they had worked their notice.
• Untaken Holiday: It is expected that all holiday will be taken before the last day of service, however exceptionally, where this is not possible, untaken holiday will be paid.

[*The Purple Futures redundancy offer does not match the NNC Enhanced Voluntary Redundancy deal insofar as it:

• Does not apply to staff with less than 2 years service
• Does not reckon all regular earnings in the calculation of the lump sum redundancy payment, i.e. the calculation will be based on basic pay only and will not include regular contractual payments such as: unsocial hours, standby and sleep-in, contractual overtime etc..]

Settlement Agreements

UNISON and Napo advise members who are offered a settlement agreement in order to access the above redundancy package to use the services of our legal advisors Thompsons Solicitors, who have a dedicated Settlement Agreement Unit which can provide the legal advice which you need before signing your agreement.

In order to use this service, you will need to:

• Phone Thompsons on 01752 521850 and advise you are an Interserve employee
•  Provide your name, address, contact telephone number
• E-mail the proposed settlement agreement to Thompsons settlementagreements@thompsons.law.co.uk
• Confirm any deadline you have been asked to comply with, by your CRC

Thompsons will invoice Interserve directly for the cost of the legal advice, so there is no need for you to be out of pocket.

NB: If you choose not to use Thompsons Solicitors and instruct alternative legal representation in relation to your settlement agreement, it might have consequences for the assistance that Napo and UNISON may be able give you with your case going forward in any matter relating to your settlement.

Secondment Agreement

About 70 CRC staff will be offered the option of secondment to the Professional Service Centre (PSC). Secondment means that the staff will work at the PSC, and be managed by the PSC manager, but remain employees of their CRC for the duration of the Purple Futures contract with the MOJ, subject to the caveats set out below.

Napo and UNISON understand from Interserve that this option will allow the staff to retain all their CRC terms and conditions, as well as continuing membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme. These benefits would potentially be at risk if staff were required to transfer employment to Interserve Justice, which will run the PSC.

Members who are considering the secondment option are advised as follows:

• It is your personal decision as to whether to accept a secondment to work for the Interserve Justice PSC, but, as this is the only option being offered to you, refusal to accept will make you vulnerable to potential dismissal from your CRC , or compulsory transfer to Interserve Justice, once your work moves to Interserve Justice. 
• The secondment agreement seeks in good faith to protect your current CRC employment status for the duration of the Purple Futures/MOJ contract, including your terms and conditions and pension rights, but with the following qualifications:
• Your terms and conditions are liable to change in line with any changes to the terms and conditions of staff working for your CRC at any time during the secondmento You will have no greater, or lesser, employment security than staff who remain working for your CRC, insofar as you may be:

§ Dismissed during your secondment for gross misconduct or incapability, in line with your CRC’s policies and procedures

§ Dismissed by way of redundancy if your CRC or Purple Futures reorganises the seconded workforce as part of organisational change at any point during the secondment

§ Subject to redeployment procedures at the end of your secondment if there is no suitable alternative post available for you back in your CRC

UNISON and Napo will continue to provide representation to members who are seconded to the PSC.