PAY OFFER FROM MTC NOVO
On the 5th March, the recognised trade unions received confirmation of a final pay offer from MTC Novo management, after a period of negotiations. We are now consulting with members about the offer and ask you to indicate your acceptance or rejection of the offer via the attached link, by no later than noon on 29th March 2018.
The offer covers both 2017-18 and 2018-19. Therefore, it is a two-year offer, even though the bulk of the 2017-18 element would be made as back pay, as soon as the offer was accepted and processed.
The key elements of the offer are as set out in the letter from MTC Novo management (see attached). This involves:
- A 1.5% non-consolidated pensionable payment for staff at the pay maxima for each of 2017-18 and 2018-19. The 2017-18 award would be made as a back dated one off lump sum payment.
- An additional non-consolidated pensionable payment of 0.5% for staff below the pay maxima in addition to their contractual incremental step in both 2017-18 and 2018-19. The 2017-18 element will again be paid in full as a one off lump sum payment.
After consultation with local elected representatives in the CRCs, informed by input from Napo’s National Officers and Officials, we are recommending that members accept the offer, as the best that can be achieved at this time by negotiation.
The offer is made at the same time as the NPS have confirmed they will not be making any pay award in 2017-18 for staff – except for meeting the contractual increment for those below their pay maxima. Therefore, although the MTC Novo offer is below the current rate of inflation, it is still better than any offer being presented by the NPS.
Given the well-rehearsed and increasingly evident financial constraints on the CRC contracts, this is both surprising and welcomed. In negotiations MTC Novo also stressed that they’d have liked to do more. Napo believe that the continuing constraints, and continued uncertainty around the outcome of national pay reform negotiations with the NPS, means they would not be able to go further at this time.
The unions had reservations about accepting any two-year offer when we were engaged in negotiations around significant pay reform with the NPS, which we believe would directly impact on MTC Novo staff and the MTC Novo contract. In Napo’s claim, we put forward that if the NPS increased pay rates then all of the CRC owners would require additional funding and support to ensure they remained competitive and able to retain staff.
However, these national NPS pay reform negotiations have stalled, following a breakdown in trust between the Treasury and the MoJ, relating to MoJ performance and the failure to get their accounts signed off. The unions are now pursuing a resolution to this crisis directly with Ministers. Even as we remain positive that the urgent need for this pay reform will be recognised in central Government, the delays mean that in reality, any movement on NPS pay reform will not take place until well into the 2018-19 financial year. Consequently, Napo believe that application of any pay reform in MTC Novo is then unlikely until 2019-20. Accordingly, we have decided that we can safely recommend the two-year deal and bank what money, however limited, MTC Novo can offer members now.
HOW TO VOTE
Alongside this update, you will have received a link to a Napo survey. Click on this link and you will be taken to a page where you will be asked if you accept the MTC Novo pay offer or not. This system ensures each member will only be able to vote once.
Please indicate your view by no later than noon on the 29th March 2018. PLEASE SHARE THIS NOTE WITH COLLEAGUES WHO MAY NOT BE MEMBERS OF NAPO. ALTHOUGH ONLY NAPO MEMBERS CAN VOTE THOSE WHO JOIN NOW AND RECEIVE A LINK.
Remember you can get cheaper subs by paying directly through Direct Debit and can also access our extensive new Napo members’ Benefits Package and save the cost of membership in full.
SARA MASON (Thames Valley Branch Chair)
DAVID RAHO (London Branch Co-chair)
DEAN ROGERS (Assistant General Secretary)
3% is a very respectable deal over 2 years. Let’s hope that The NPS are shamed into offering something meaningful. The robust but constructive dialogue between MTCnovo and Napo in particular led by Raho and Rogers in local collective bargaining appears to have achieved a result where national negotiations with the NPS led by Lawrence appears to have stalled - go figure.
ReplyDeleteNot correct senior management had already leaked we were getting a deal whatever the unions said. It is well understood they needed to quell the staff anger and retain where possible as the pay had fallen so far behind all public services. The PR is a value issue now as the back log and overwork are the hidden local issues. The Union have done nothing for CRC staff and offer nothing. Comparing the pay offer to NPS is just not a reasonable argument. I woulod like to know what on earth the NAPO staff are being paid for at all ? London branch is in disarray and decline since the managerial dictate style of those two has been subverting member views and fading on membership input.
DeleteNapo London Branch is not in disarray at all. There have always been factions in the branch who don’t agree with anything and just want a fight with whoever. London BrCh has held its membership in comparison with other branches and Raho has kept things on course and under control. Napo is modernising and the old tub thumping dinosaurs are thankfully few and far between now. Further reform is needed. If you are a member you can of course ask any employee of Napo what they are paid to do. Rogers has no authority over London Branch but is their link officer and is invited to branch meetings and attends partnership meeting with employers in an advisory capacity. When reps meet with employers and negotiate on behalf of members that’s collective bargaining
DeleteThe defence arm of those who appear in control here clear on your position yet disaterous for a genuine iunion that Napo is no longer and your sort are the sort to collude and you illustrate nicely "partnership meeting with employers in an advisory capacity" Oh and on what side do you mean ? Oh no we can all see what side the employers. That pair have destroyed the collective debate in the last AGM and they will continue as NAPO become extinct along with your Dinosaur quote.
DeleteFACT CHECK: This is a 1% pay deal over two years. 2% is contractual paid as 1 increment each year.
DeleteActually it is a 0.5% pay deal for two years. Worse still it is only a one off. You don't benefit year on year! Poor show.
DeleteWonder - what percentage increase on contract payments were the Tory bungs to CRCs last year? Gilded by the lack of financial penalty enforcement re-poor performance AND the amended contracts. At a guess, considerably more generous than 1.5%.
ReplyDeleteAnd 1.5% for two consecutive pay years is NOT 3%, its 1.5%.
Yes it is only 1.5% the poster unable to do simple math says a lot about the simple and foolish commentary. There was no real negotiations and not a sign of collective bargaining as the duo are directly responsible for the deconstruction of collective bargaining. Neither are trade unionists. The opportunists have taken hold of the vacuum of leadership locally and are imposing their brand of technocratic authoritarian direction. Neither of them work for a CRC . Both of them serving a self interest at the expense of the whole membership.
Delete8:44 That’s called managing the anti union narrative.
DeleteSuch quick negative responses to what was a negotiated deal that has been ongoing since the last pay negotiations. Describing the union reps as management stooges is a common tactic in trade relations. Posting fake news that they are self serving is ill informed nonsense. Rogers works hard for Napo doing what he is paid to do. Raho’s wages are paid by London CRC where he works as a P.O. They are not responsible for any deconstruction of collective bargaining and to assert this is a failure to understand what collective bargaining is. 1.5% this year followed by 1.5% the next is 3% on what we have now. It’s a 3% deal over 2 years as stated. The local Napo negotiating team has done well and if members decide to reject the offer then so be it.
Thank you David for this explanation. Only a few might agree with you however.
DeleteSo MTC Novo seem to have found a bit of budget to make a modest but significant gesture to staff. Meanwhile in Cardiff, bailiffs turned up at Working Links CRC office recently with an order to close the building or remove goods to the part/total value of the outstanding rates and energy bills. I hear the negotiations with the manager went on for hours, witnessed by service users.
ReplyDeleteWhen did you hear about that ?
DeleteMan in the pub told me this weekend but i think its older news?
DeleteOh I see thanks . Working links own the crc in the south west too
DeleteHappened not so long ago in UPW office. Are WL going broke?
DeleteLets all hope so its happened before but I doubt it as the Government will bail them out again.
DeleteWell done all those involved in the local pay negotitions that are the inevitable response to the national negotiating structure that has long been unfit for purpose and lacked the support it required from employers as a negotiating body. That had nothing to do with Raho and Rogers. If they are guilty of anything it was to see the reality that after the split another approach was needed rather than try to flog a dead horse as some on the looniest left of Napo still try to do like a flashback to the 1970s. What they have put in place locally is the model for what should be happening across all CRCs and is far more effective than what amounts to an an email exchange with managers rather than playing them on their own territory with agreements and contract negotiations. This is more complex than waving banners shouting demands in the rain where no one gives a monkeys. Employers will never credit the unions for making a powerful case for pay increase and will always claim they intended to increase pay and that unions are irrelevant in the process. If that is the price of an increase the so be it. What is clear in this case however is that unions are relevant and have ensured the best possible outcome for their members. Those who cast doubt on the motivation of union reps either paid or elected and disparage them no matter what they achieve are often those who want them to fail and no interest in employees interests whatsoever. Don’t support the armchair naysayers but instead celebrate every small victory whenever we get one and encourage those responsible to do more not less.
ReplyDeleteRMT do well in negotiations and you never read the Napo mantra the best that can be achieved at this time. Your London centric defences are just not indicative of the backlash members feel by being betrayed. Collective bargaining is the central labour manifesto arm for unions perhaps you are best placed to encourage the errant and ill conceived pair to adopt genuine trade union values and not their ideologue of self aggrandisement.
DeleteOh yes slaps on the back, fist bumps and high fives all round to the unions for achieving a 1.5% pay increase for these members, a tiny portion of a pay increase that is long overdue!! Big shout-out to MTC Novo who recently received £millions in additional payouts from the government for its abysmal probation work, to the government that awards its ministers huge pay increases every year, and, last but not least, to our very own Michael Spurr who recently received a £20,000 bonus for all his hard work supporting probation and prisons. Thank you and goodnight.
ReplyDeleteI think I may have spotted an armchair naysayer having one last round of bah humbug before leaving in disgust at some slight glimmer of something ok before slithering out of his armchair and heading off to bed
DeleteOh silly me, and to Napo’s Ian Lawrence who earns twice as much as any of the probation officers he represents. Thanks Ian, I’m so grateful for this 1.5% increase; I’ll no longer hear colleagues moaning about being overworked and underpaid, my job satisfaction levels will be maxed out and my financial problems will just disappear- poof!
DeleteUndoubtedly this will put a cheer on the faces of all the admin in MTC Novo (London CRC) being forced to relocate to a central hub on 1st May or leave without redundancy! Good job on that one too Ian!
22:45 is actually indicative of many of my PO colleagues views who left NAPO and are openly hostile as to the reasons why being let down. 22:59 while it is a thorny and figure of a large salary there is considerable additional on costs AGS slary is also an incredible amount for the size of the union which is a shrinking anmd diminishing subscription. Professional fees when most members are not in the NPS PO structure and many in CRCs getting zero benefit for the high membership rates. The figures just do not add up. an incredible slice of the NAPO runs the AGS in clover as well and lets not forget the criticism placed is in fact due on the AGS it is him doing that negotiation in London.
DeleteI pay my council tax, I’ve never missed a payment. The rubbish collection is very poor, my bin has not been emptied for the past two years and there is a large pile of refuse outside my house which I try to reduce by taking a few bags to the rubbish dump. I’ve been complaining to the council about this for two years, as have my neighbours who are all in the same predicament. Today, and for the first time in two years the bin men arrived and part-emptied my bin and the bins of 3 neighbours. They were a nice couple of chaps and explained they were only allowed to take a small portion of the rubbish and may return to take another small portion of rubbish in a year or so. They could tell I wasn’t very happy with this, just as the rest of my neighbours were not happy. Despite our complaints they said that we should be grateful they’ve taken a small portion of my rubbish and should celebrate this small victory. The council have repeated the same message and said this is “the best they can do” at this time.
ReplyDeleteIf this story were true there would be nothing to be grateful for, just like Raho’s “small victory” is not really so. The “celebration” should be reserved not for a small portion of members receiving a small portion of what we are entitled too, but for when we all receive over and above what we are all entitled to.
Well put tale . Pity so true.
DeleteThere is no union influence at all either in the NPS or CRCs the employers just do what they want and generally offer the lowest pay increase they can get away with Its time Napo threw in the towel and joined forces with a bigger and more powerful union and try to regain some influence
ReplyDeleteThat is an all staff message from the management !
DeleteLook forwards the privatised split is over the truth is we will be reunified at some point as the current faiulure in social experiement cannot in any imagination be continued. The CRCs will cost more than three times what the trusts absorbed as a unified and there is no way at this time should anyone be talking about giving in. Of course there is the general Secretary election shortly and no doubt the membership will be looking for a new leader of ability . What is happening on this is there any information.
Offenders banned from entering the Cardiff Working Links office from Mon. Wales CRC urgently looking for premises for them to report.
ReplyDeleteFull story please ? Another unpaid debt scam or lie or the wrong sorts of people in multi occupancy buildings and as usual WL doing what they like?
DeleteWorking links only rent one floor. It’s the owner of the building that has the say
Delete'the wrong sorts of people in multi occupancy buildings'
ReplyDeleteSpot on! NIMBYs
Working Links aren't banning them the landlord is after pressure from other tenants.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Interserve will be offering their staff they are going bust. We might be lucky enough to be offered pens.
ReplyDeleteOh what a shame and I just left the horrors London CRC.
ReplyDeleteWhat a load of grumps
ReplyDeletethat posted yesterday! Yes we are owed more than this and I abhor the loss of national bargaining too but then to wring hands or wave clenched fist, say the Unions do nothing & infer no good development can ever occur is neither use nor ornament. Use that anger or frustration and come up with some positive plan for yourself and your future if not for you, your colleagues abd your profession.
You clearly do not understand the concept that the loss collective meant. It was weak to give up and place terms at risk. The trade union hard decisions would be to manage a principled campaign. They took easy street.
ReplyDeleteIs there any feedback on pay discussions in CRC West Yorkshire, or should I say disaster zone. Low Moral, poorly managed Caseload, an IT system to die for NOT. Departments in general total rock bottom, managers have little control over it, Senior Managers leaving for rivals. You couldn’t make it up.
ReplyDeleteWe still don’t know who are Interserve, preferred bidder done Jack S**t with it.
Just give it back, let Grayling sort the mess he led on.