Thursday 13 April 2017

Latest From Napo 146

Here we have edited highlights from the latest blog post by the Napo General Secretary Ian Lawrence:-

WORKING LINKS FOUND WANTING ON INSURANCE COVER FOR UPW FLEET

News reaches me that a number of Working Links employees were not covered by valid CP vehicle insurance in the Devon area from the period of 27th March up to last weekend. The ensuing chaos in the delivery of Community Payback was compounded by a previous delay with the delivery of fuel cards. I am told that this resulted in some of the van fleet being grounded miles away from their scheduled use last weekend with desperate staff using their own vehicles to transport offenders back from community service assignments.

It seems that someone at least had the nous to order a lock down on the use of all fleet vehicles within the operational areas while steps were taken to rectify the situation. A number of supervisory staff, understandably concerned about their legal position, used their own vehicles to tell clients at CP sites to stand down.

It is not clear at this stage whether this resulted in unsupervised clients having to make their own way home, but a number of issues have been raised with me by members regarding the loss of community service provision, estimated at the equivalent hours for 70 clients, and the impact on those organisations who expected unpaid work to be carried out on their behalf. There are also doubts being expressed about other vehicles owned by Working Links that are thought not to have valid MOT certificates.

No; before you say it I will. You could not make it up.

Workloads campaign is for everybody!

We sent out another reminder to members this week about the plans for Napo members everywhere: NPS/CRC/PBNI/CAFCASS to take part in the lunchtime demos on Workers Memorial Day on 28th April. This is a timely opportunity to get out in the sunshine or rain (whatever) and highlight the impact of workloads on you and your colleagues. It’s also another opportunity to open up a discussion with colleagues who are not in a trade union about why we are organising activities such as this.

An unpaid bill?

News reaching me from the NPS North West where members have told me that it has not been possible to make telephone calls this week from a number of locations and Approved Premises around Lancashire, as it is thought that bills have not been paid on time.

Fortunately incoming calls were possible and hopefully someone down at HMPPS in London will have taken advantage of this and enquired as to what has gone on exactly.

It’s a strange eco-unfriendly world in some CRC’s

Speaking of bills, CRC staff tell Napo that SEETEC are unwilling to pay for the cost of the tea towel cleaning contract (reported to be £8 per week) and have instructed staff to buy new ones and throw them away. Mixed views about this latest cost cutting exercise, with some well-founded speculation that the ‘buy and throw’ policy is likely to be more expensive and not too good for our environment.

Maybe we ought not to be too surprised, following the ‘buy and throw’ approach to staffing that some CRC owners adopted soon after winning the contracts.

Attendance Management and the need for consistency

The way in which the deeply unpopular HMPPS Attendance Management Policy was written and its chaotic application across the NPS, is a constant source of dissatisfaction among members.

We are doing all that we can, amongst the many other priorities, to challenge situations where we can and to offer advice to hard pressed Branch Reps. We are also in discussion with the POA about their current engagement with HMPPS on the policy.

For example, National Official Sarah Friday met with HR specialists from HMPPS this week. They confirmed that there should not be a cap on the number of days for invoking trigger points when allowing for reasonable adjustment, as each case will differ and should be judged on its merits. So if there is evidence that a cap is operating please let your Link Officer know.

I was able to alert the HMPPS Well-Being team to some worrying information that had reached me this week from our reps in an NPS Division and I have been assured that they will be looking into how they can address the problems there as part of their support and sustain programme.

Branch Napo leads for the Attendance Management policy should also keep an eye out for an awareness workshop that HMPPS have agreed to run for managers and union reps. It is hoped that this will allow for full and open dialogue about what has and is going on, as well as what ought to be happening.

More news to follow as soon as possible.

Happy Holiday

Here’s hoping you make the best of the long weekend and that we have some decent weather to go with it.

28 comments:

  1. Norfolk and Suffolk regularly drive without MOT cover !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is this right? We all have a personal duty to abide by civil laws and yet the very companies who this Government have outsourced the work out too are not carrying out their duties in accordance with the laws this shambolic government are supposed to be adhering to. It says it all, we are supposed to be a public service, yet are breaking the most basic of laws to cut costs. #shambolic

      Delete
  2. Yes this is once a year as there is no mechanism to get the vehicles MOT'D on time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Criminals should be made to walk to community service. These people expect lifts to their punishment. Absolute joke. You lot need to get a grip

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, let's make something more punitive than it needs to be, thereby reducing its effectiveness and usefulness to the community, in order to satisfy our own petty, small-minded obsessions. Haven't you got the Department of Transport to run now, Chris? (and cyclists to run over)

      Delete
    2. 18:50's post made me smile. I had a picture of criminals walking along chained together, wearing grey flannel tracksuits with a neat 'arrow' design pattern & singing mournful songs of woe.

      Delete
    3. In one CRC 4 brand new minibuses have been purchased only to find they are too high to fit in the underground car park. They have been parked elsewhere and unused.

      Delete
    4. You say criminals should be made to walk which I agree with you, I also think the criminals as you call them also would rather walk or make there on way. The thing I would like to know is do they have any say in the matter, are they given the choice.

      Delete
  4. I believe there were major issues witin Interswerve CGM CP inially as none of the vehicles or staff were insured - a lot of hard work to get this resolved was undertaken by CP staff - I was told by a reliable source that the company Interswerve contracted to hire their new CP vehicles from ( apparently with money from the MOJ ) was one of their " long arm " companies but all of this was kept rather quiet !!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't driving without insurance an offence which can attract a custodial sentence? When CRC staff sign their expenses, we confirm that we have valid business cover. Double standards? If there were a serious accident through use of uninsured CRC vehicles, think of the consequences.

      CRC Owners need to risk assessed as 'offenders' and duly reported to the police. This is what would happen to people under their supervision.


      Yes, you couldn't make it up!

      P.S. rumours of staff in other CRC's paying themselves for fuel for CP vans as fuel bills not paid by the CRC.

      Delete
    2. CP in Merseyside moving into new premises that is also to double up as muster and the parking of 2 UPW minibuses overnight - unfortunately, a week before moving in, they've been told the landlord doesnt want the vans there and all streets around are double yellows!! God know what's going to happen there.

      Delete
  5. Yes let them walk and they can burgle your house on the way.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Seems to me there isn't enough formal whistleblowing going on where it needs to, these things shouldn't just be reported on this blogg. Criminal activity should be exposed formally and supported by the unions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wonder how many CRC's are still allowing their CP Supervisors to drive minibuses, 9 passengers plus driver, without undertaking the new (last 5 years) CPC training. I know some areas took 1 seat out of their minibuses to alleviate this necessity.

      Delete
  7. Seetec employee reviews make for some interesting reading onhttps://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Seetec-Reviews-E341149.htm

    Quote;
    March 2017 "Disaster written all over"
    April 2017 "Do not go there"

    March 2017 review
    Doesn't Recommend
    Negative Outlook
    Disapproves of CEO
    Pros
    No pro's to be found here.
    Cons
    If you value your professional reputation, stay clear.

    Having worked at SEETEC in their internal IT support team, I can safely say that in my years of working in IT I have not ever witnessed an IT department as disastrous and unprofessional as theirs.

    I'll break down the key points here so as to make it easier to understand where I am coming from:

    1) Communication - At the heart of every IT team is effective communication, by knowing what requests are going where and how urgent it is. An IT team can be extremely effective. At SEETEC however, communication was non-existent, this in turn lead to requests being left open and end users (that is you guys) not having your requests completed on time and I received the burden of having to sort the issues out.

    2) IT policies not followed - These are paramount for the protection of confidential data, in a well organised company that deals with confidential information, IT policies are applied and must be adhered too.
    At SEETEC, this was not done and on several occasions incidents arised that directors and higher ups were using Windows 10 in a untested state with the basic built in Windows Defender software (which as any IT techie would tell you, only does so much), this had the potential for a major DPA breach and their anti virus was not compatible with Windows 10 at the time, no one in the IT department had the guts to stand up to the directors and say 'You cannot have Windows 10 on your machine in its current state' for fear of losing their job.

    3) Equipment - The equipment used on sites that deal with external customers were shall we say, extremely inadequate.
    They were battered, broken, extremely dirty and really really slow. Not what you want to give to clients whom you're trying to make a good impression on.

    4) Process and procedures - Sorry, what are they again? Countless times I have asked for clarity on a process only to find it's changed an hour later and not communicated, not good.

    5) Management - Management of both first line and second line IT teams was a disaster, there were numerous occasions where 1st line dabbled in 2nd Line territory and this frustrated me no end as it the boundaries got blurred and toes were stepped on. I'm still certain to this day that the manager I had when I was there, had no previous management experience in IT or any capacity.
    If I tried to raise a concern or point out a potential issue, I was told to 'be quiet' or the concern I was raising was somehow turned around on me and tried to blame the problem on me.

    All in all, I left SEETEC due to the aforementioned above.
    Show Less
    Advice to Management
    You're way out of your league, perhaps I'd suggest going back to a 1st Line role where you seem to be more suited?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Communication in Seetec is practically non existent. No consultation with front line staff. All that matters is targets. As stated above policy and procedures can change by the hour only trouble is they forget to tell the staff.

      Delete
  8. Not forgetting Working Links employee reviews. https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Working-Links-Reviews-E313224.htm

    Quote;
    March 2017 "Mix of good and bad"
    January 2017 "Advice to Management give opportunity to progress in order to keep staff. Top performers shouldn't be punished by losing bonus due to poor performers.

    April 2016 - Pros
    I worked for the company for 12 years and for the first 6 years it was a brilliant experience. The company really looked after their staff with healthy bonus's for staff who achieved their targets and support for staff who were not so successful. See below for details of my last 6 years, and the not so good part of being a Working Links employee.
    Cons
    Eventually, mainly due to government pressure achieving targets became the be all and end all with this company. Even when you achieved your targets you are not rewarded well. Staff who didn't achieve their targets were given a matter of weeks to start achieving, and if they still failed they were dismissed. The clients who we were supposed to be helping were just treated like numbers who were forced to accept mainly. Advice to Management take onboard, and take action about the comments I have made above.

    ReplyDelete
  9. OK I'm on a roll now, Interserve just this one review is definitely worth a mention. https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Interserve-Reviews-E10253.htm

    Quote; April 2017

    "Insane management"

    Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Ryde, England
    Disapproves of CEO
    Pros
    Nothing good about working for this joke company
    Cons
    Management strangling a labourer when he stands up for himself
    Advice to Management
    Stop hiring nutters as site managers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No Pros for interswerve, they are the most despicable company. The way they have taken the is piss out of their staff is astonishing and cruel. Going to work everyday is like living in a repeated nightmare. And those that may think that interswerve are the best out of a bad bunch need to think again or try working for Manchester CRC to see how snake bellied this company is. They give you unmanageable work loads and if something goes wrong they are out to get you instead of supporting you. I hear that there are currently 9 staff who are suspended and others have been dismissed. This is their ploy get rid of as many staff as they can through dismissals and then employ cheaper staff who they can bully. Win win for interswereve no money to pay out.

      Delete
    2. Working links are worse.

      Delete
  10. For fuk sake, this is unbelievable and unbearable. Despicable enough treating staff like this, but what of the knock on effect for public protection? Rot in hell CG

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Grayling has a lot to answer for. How can he be allowed to continue in politics, he has created havoc wherever he has gone and is now in the process of destructing the transport sector.

      Delete
    2. He is now being criticised for failing to act on recommendations for Will Writing to become regulated.


      Hear Moneybox Programme at 12 noon today, Saturday 15th April or listen online.

      Delete
  11. So where or whom does one go to, to formally whistleblow?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing/what-is-a-whistleblower

      Delete
    2. It tells you everything you need to know about your protection and who to go to

      Delete
  12. Tried to challenge CRC decisions and failed despite Union representation.

    ReplyDelete
  13. How many union members have been lost through CRC's staff culling measures?

    ReplyDelete