Branch Report 31
June 2019
Dear members,
A short update on the meetings over pay and how far Seetec claim things are developing. Keep in mind many of their initial plans were not based on the contracts ending as early nor the reduced and uncertain TR2. The fantastic news of the case management separation is just the start of the Napo campaign to see 100% return to public service.
Seetec is the contract holder for the remaining period to 31 3 21 which is just about the next 20 months. The Seetec promises of more pay to certain grades is now retracted and evaporated as an outdated wooing of the staff illusion. Their so called repair plan of 90 days is nowhere near target from their 14 of February boasting. No discernible action plan has been shared or mentioned to the Unions which actually deal effectively with the calamities raised within the HMIP report on workloads and the dysfunctional workload indicator process.
There has been a bit of talking up from Seetec and what they have been doing in relation to third party contracts to providers debts, office renewed space and recruiting hopes projections. These are less helpful to staff who should ordinarily expect to have the basics in place and at the least appropriate office base. Understanding facilities are essential tools of the job. In managing the disaster Seetec should have set out to ensure the repair of Working Links gross mis-management were handled sympathetically towards staff with a more gentle approach. Instead we read of the back slapping celebrations that work continued while they seamlessly took the reins. This is no consolation to the absented and overworked staff and still no recognition of a need to have a moratorium in light of the issues raised in the HMIP report. That issue will continue until the safe return of case management to public services.
The meeting in Reading was a lengthy listen to Seetec promoting a new model but still nothing in writing and an agenda that came out the day before the meeting. Most of what we heard was jam tomorrow. The reality of the case management for Wales having to be in place by December 2019 is a good thing and focused attention on the priorities that will have to be in place to ensure a smooth transition and the necessary protection for those staff and for the longer term. Anyone having suffered the Working Links way for this number of years will need full support and a decent period of adjusting built into the arrangements. It is clear to all involved in this issue, the transfer arrangements will have to be tighter than before given what we have learned. The predicted collapse of Working Links may have had some bearing on the Wales’ return to public ownership. What I wonder is where did the money go and will there be an appropriate if not criminal inquiry as to how they spent\ lost so much public monies.
The ongoing meeting provided limited scrutiny of the Seetec future planning especially now they have their news, the whole case management game is up in March 2021. They were very clear that they believed that splitting case management away from interventions is not a good thing to do. On that point we would easily agree however when pushed they would not accept that putting case management back into public ownership was the correct thing to do either. Well they cannot have their cake and eat it.
They still refused to share their planning documents. The General Secretary remarked carefully that the current talks went nowhere near appropriate meaningful consultations. The senior management avoided engagement on the issue. They also want to engage in terms rewriting. How long they have left in in charge makes this a questionable activity.
The Pay talks themselves.
If ever there was a story of how to play important issues into the long grass Seetec have all the same disingenuous approaches, that Working Links excelled. With only three meetings involving the Pan Trades Union Sides and Seetec representatives, none of them appearing to have authority to formally agree any changes or settlement offer. The so-called talks amounted to just a few hours on the claim and that only happening at the end of the meeting. It was worse than poor in that the General Secretary pointed out a range of failures to consult properly and meaningfully with the lack of information and absence of new evidence to support their rejection of the joint unions pay claim. The miserly and below par offer is just 1% but they claim is 2% because they ignore that contractual rights includes 1%. A clear signal that staff just come last every time. It was made clear the South West is well noted as a difficult area to recruit staff, despite the evidence for pay incentive endorsements for the region. Seetec ignored it. We doubt they will find the numbers of staff they will need in the short term. This in turn led them to continue to ignore the real issues of overwork and stress for staff. They continue to bluff by directly ignoring staff terms and conditions. Workloads weightings will not go away and as more staff are feeling the pressure the area remains as it was and the next HMIP report will most likely say much of the same. I take no pleasure in reporting this view. We have all the information we need to help the area and yet we have the private profits motive paying staff less but expecting even more.
Wages in the South West
Workers in some sectors are gaining pay rises but real wages overall in the South West are still £21.78 a week lower than a decade ago. The Government has been keen to herald a return to above inflation pay rises but any rises have not been spread equally or fairly.
Average real pay in the financial sector has increased by 9.3% (£119 per week) since 2009 reaching a record average of £1,405 per week – driven by big pay rises for London’s bankers. Other sectors that have seen real wage growth include, retail and hospitality - boosted by increases to the minimum wage. The story is very different for public sector workers.
People employed in health and social work and education are still £36 a week worse off than in 2009. Real pay for workers in manufacturing of food and drink, a key sector for the West Country, is still down by £52 per week. Source TUC.
Nonetheless and despite the meeting closing with a promise of a letter to the NAPO General Secretary which rejected flatly the Pay claim, the response had been swift from Ian Lawrence and the combined Unions. Members will have seen the issued bulletins on talks and the subsequent letter notifying of the additional dispute on pay. We wait for continued talks but I doubt they will pass on any appropriate pay increase to staff no matter how much the MOJ floated them.
As a branch in the SSW we have our AGM on the 27th of June please attend have your say and question your branch officials on strategy and direction for the protection of your role terms and conditions through this next year. It will be challenging and as we stick together easier to ensure your protections and the future transfer arrangements are managed fairly and properly no matter what the intentions of Seetec, the NPS in terms of the staffing ratio, and the possible although not yet certain split of interventions .
If you’re not in Napo and reading this then please join now. Whatever the future shapes up for probation together we are stronger. Whatever it takes.
Dino Peros
Dear members,
A short update on the meetings over pay and how far Seetec claim things are developing. Keep in mind many of their initial plans were not based on the contracts ending as early nor the reduced and uncertain TR2. The fantastic news of the case management separation is just the start of the Napo campaign to see 100% return to public service.
Seetec is the contract holder for the remaining period to 31 3 21 which is just about the next 20 months. The Seetec promises of more pay to certain grades is now retracted and evaporated as an outdated wooing of the staff illusion. Their so called repair plan of 90 days is nowhere near target from their 14 of February boasting. No discernible action plan has been shared or mentioned to the Unions which actually deal effectively with the calamities raised within the HMIP report on workloads and the dysfunctional workload indicator process.
There has been a bit of talking up from Seetec and what they have been doing in relation to third party contracts to providers debts, office renewed space and recruiting hopes projections. These are less helpful to staff who should ordinarily expect to have the basics in place and at the least appropriate office base. Understanding facilities are essential tools of the job. In managing the disaster Seetec should have set out to ensure the repair of Working Links gross mis-management were handled sympathetically towards staff with a more gentle approach. Instead we read of the back slapping celebrations that work continued while they seamlessly took the reins. This is no consolation to the absented and overworked staff and still no recognition of a need to have a moratorium in light of the issues raised in the HMIP report. That issue will continue until the safe return of case management to public services.
The meeting in Reading was a lengthy listen to Seetec promoting a new model but still nothing in writing and an agenda that came out the day before the meeting. Most of what we heard was jam tomorrow. The reality of the case management for Wales having to be in place by December 2019 is a good thing and focused attention on the priorities that will have to be in place to ensure a smooth transition and the necessary protection for those staff and for the longer term. Anyone having suffered the Working Links way for this number of years will need full support and a decent period of adjusting built into the arrangements. It is clear to all involved in this issue, the transfer arrangements will have to be tighter than before given what we have learned. The predicted collapse of Working Links may have had some bearing on the Wales’ return to public ownership. What I wonder is where did the money go and will there be an appropriate if not criminal inquiry as to how they spent\ lost so much public monies.
The ongoing meeting provided limited scrutiny of the Seetec future planning especially now they have their news, the whole case management game is up in March 2021. They were very clear that they believed that splitting case management away from interventions is not a good thing to do. On that point we would easily agree however when pushed they would not accept that putting case management back into public ownership was the correct thing to do either. Well they cannot have their cake and eat it.
They still refused to share their planning documents. The General Secretary remarked carefully that the current talks went nowhere near appropriate meaningful consultations. The senior management avoided engagement on the issue. They also want to engage in terms rewriting. How long they have left in in charge makes this a questionable activity.
The Pay talks themselves.
If ever there was a story of how to play important issues into the long grass Seetec have all the same disingenuous approaches, that Working Links excelled. With only three meetings involving the Pan Trades Union Sides and Seetec representatives, none of them appearing to have authority to formally agree any changes or settlement offer. The so-called talks amounted to just a few hours on the claim and that only happening at the end of the meeting. It was worse than poor in that the General Secretary pointed out a range of failures to consult properly and meaningfully with the lack of information and absence of new evidence to support their rejection of the joint unions pay claim. The miserly and below par offer is just 1% but they claim is 2% because they ignore that contractual rights includes 1%. A clear signal that staff just come last every time. It was made clear the South West is well noted as a difficult area to recruit staff, despite the evidence for pay incentive endorsements for the region. Seetec ignored it. We doubt they will find the numbers of staff they will need in the short term. This in turn led them to continue to ignore the real issues of overwork and stress for staff. They continue to bluff by directly ignoring staff terms and conditions. Workloads weightings will not go away and as more staff are feeling the pressure the area remains as it was and the next HMIP report will most likely say much of the same. I take no pleasure in reporting this view. We have all the information we need to help the area and yet we have the private profits motive paying staff less but expecting even more.
Wages in the South West
Workers in some sectors are gaining pay rises but real wages overall in the South West are still £21.78 a week lower than a decade ago. The Government has been keen to herald a return to above inflation pay rises but any rises have not been spread equally or fairly.
Average real pay in the financial sector has increased by 9.3% (£119 per week) since 2009 reaching a record average of £1,405 per week – driven by big pay rises for London’s bankers. Other sectors that have seen real wage growth include, retail and hospitality - boosted by increases to the minimum wage. The story is very different for public sector workers.
People employed in health and social work and education are still £36 a week worse off than in 2009. Real pay for workers in manufacturing of food and drink, a key sector for the West Country, is still down by £52 per week. Source TUC.
Nonetheless and despite the meeting closing with a promise of a letter to the NAPO General Secretary which rejected flatly the Pay claim, the response had been swift from Ian Lawrence and the combined Unions. Members will have seen the issued bulletins on talks and the subsequent letter notifying of the additional dispute on pay. We wait for continued talks but I doubt they will pass on any appropriate pay increase to staff no matter how much the MOJ floated them.
As a branch in the SSW we have our AGM on the 27th of June please attend have your say and question your branch officials on strategy and direction for the protection of your role terms and conditions through this next year. It will be challenging and as we stick together easier to ensure your protections and the future transfer arrangements are managed fairly and properly no matter what the intentions of Seetec, the NPS in terms of the staffing ratio, and the possible although not yet certain split of interventions .
If you’re not in Napo and reading this then please join now. Whatever the future shapes up for probation together we are stronger. Whatever it takes.
Dino Peros
Napo SSW Branch Chair.
We know the MoJ lies, withholds information and bullies, but forging documents is yet another part of their dirty tricks. We talk about the rule of law and how this defines a democracy and protects the individual against cynical apparatuses operated by other states, like, say, China, Russia and Middle Eastern despots. But when an arm of the British state seeks to mislead a legal tribunal, then we find that our assumed moral high ground has suffered more subsidence.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/19/bullied-bisexual-prison-officer-ben-plaistow-unlikely-work-again-tribunal
We will cover this in detail shortly, but here's a taster from the Guardian:-
DeleteA bisexual prison officer is unlikely to ever work again because the harassment and discrimination he suffered at work has permanently damaged his health, an employment tribunal has found.
In two judgments, it was revealed that Ben Plaistow, 41, is likely to receive an exceptionally high compensation payout when his case is finally settled later this year, not only because of the campaign of bullying and harassment his colleagues at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes conducted against him during his two years of employment there, but also because of a litany of failings by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), including the forging of documents submitted to the tribunal.
“Perhaps most seriously, given the identity of the respondent [the MoJ], is the forgery by late production and backdating of documents designed to ‘plug gaps’,” the tribunal ruling states.
It also refers to “corruption of documents by conflation, amendment or post-dated creation” and said the MoJ’s failings go “beyond error”.
The colleagues were found to have engaged in a “campaign of victimisation” against Plaistow, with their conduct found to be “vexatious, disruptive and unreasonable”.
That sw branch reports the same sort of behaviour all credit to them . Institutional cover up and contracted government liars all the same .
DeleteNPS do the same policy abuses. Complicate and lies are rife supported by senior management and the corrupted aggressive HR.
DeleteSo true re. NPS policy abuses and corrupted aggressive senior management and HR. Bullying tactics to deflect from their disgraceful and illegal treatment of staff.
DeleteI don't understand how any expectation of successful negotiations with the privateers on pay or working conditions is hoped to be achieved when the contracts are so close to ending.
ReplyDeleteSurely the strategy of the privateers will be one of broken promises, misdirection and spin, to keep stalling talks and avoiding commitments until their contracts expire?
I'm probably being nieve, but I would have thought the companies goals, with contracts ending, is to hoover up every penny they can, which ever way they can, before they lick the door for the final time?
'Getafix
Absolutely agree with getafix. Always insightful of the situation why would they not just impose a cheapmdeal and steal the rest. The moj funded a rise so they had to pay something and pocket the profit.
DeleteI think the branch officers already knew the outcome . They said as much in advance. They remain dispute with another contract with its days numbered to finish neither side cares .
DeleteMeanwhile at KSS.... More outstanding leadership and inadequate implementation and delivery... https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2019/06/Kent-Surrey-and-Sussex-CRC-inspection-report.pdf
ReplyDeleteOh now there's a suprise " outstanding leadership "!!????? Really how can they say any of the failing CRC's have " outstanding leaders " - they obviously took no notice of staff they interviewed as part of the inspection process
ReplyDeleteSeetec leaders outstanding hahahahahaha
DeleteThat outstanding leadership, and the accelerated promotions within CRCs is soon to be joined together!!
DeleteCan't see any conflict there eh?
Dame G has gone the new inspector has been paid for.
ReplyDelete