Staff Transfer talks ongoing
From the General Secretary
This important update explains the position in the current negotiations on the Transfer of CRC staff to either the NPS (Wales in December, and NPS England in 2021) or one of the proposed new providers of Interventions, Unpaid Work, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, after the cessation of all CRC contracts that year. Napo will of course continue our campaign of opposition to the continued ‘Marketisation’ of any Probation Work.
Following the Government U-turn on Probation in May this year, intense and complex negotiations have been taking place with the HMPPS and MoJ to try and secure a Staff Transfer and Protections Agreement (STAP). This will allow CRC staff to move onto NPS pay and conditions and provide key protections for those staff who will move to new providers if new contracts are established. While significant progress has been made, Napo’s Probation Negotiating Committee met yesterday and endorsed the recommendation from your National Chair, Katie Lomas, and myself, that we are not yet in a position to ballot all CRC members on an agreement, and that we should continue our efforts here.
The below and this link update explains what will happen next in respect of our CRC members in Wales where Offender Management work and Staff will transfer to the NPS on 1st December 2019 and the agreed arrangements for retrospective application of the Transfer Agreement subject to all CRC members eventually being balloted on the final negotiated position.
Napo campaigning results in a significant membership increase.
Whilst our AGM received some encouraging news that nearly all of Napo’s Branches had reported a rise in Napo membership over the last 12 months, I thought that all members would want to join me in congratulating Napo Cymru for achieving a remarkable 10% increase.
This reflects the local efforts of our activists and members in partnership with Napo’s strong central campaign that has been building in momentum since the victory against the proposals to sell off all remaining probation work earlier this year. This demonstrates why there has never been a better time to encourage your colleagues, who are not currently a member of a trade union, to consider joining Napo today.
New members working in a CRC will be guaranteed a vote on the Staff Transfer Agreement and become part of the collective effort to establish pay parity across the whole of probation and the eventual return of all Probation work into public ownership and control.
More news on the Transfer Agreement negotiations will be issued as soon as it becomes available.
Regards
IAN LAWRENCE
General Secretary
From the General Secretary
This important update explains the position in the current negotiations on the Transfer of CRC staff to either the NPS (Wales in December, and NPS England in 2021) or one of the proposed new providers of Interventions, Unpaid Work, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, after the cessation of all CRC contracts that year. Napo will of course continue our campaign of opposition to the continued ‘Marketisation’ of any Probation Work.
Following the Government U-turn on Probation in May this year, intense and complex negotiations have been taking place with the HMPPS and MoJ to try and secure a Staff Transfer and Protections Agreement (STAP). This will allow CRC staff to move onto NPS pay and conditions and provide key protections for those staff who will move to new providers if new contracts are established. While significant progress has been made, Napo’s Probation Negotiating Committee met yesterday and endorsed the recommendation from your National Chair, Katie Lomas, and myself, that we are not yet in a position to ballot all CRC members on an agreement, and that we should continue our efforts here.
The below and this link update explains what will happen next in respect of our CRC members in Wales where Offender Management work and Staff will transfer to the NPS on 1st December 2019 and the agreed arrangements for retrospective application of the Transfer Agreement subject to all CRC members eventually being balloted on the final negotiated position.
Napo campaigning results in a significant membership increase.
Whilst our AGM received some encouraging news that nearly all of Napo’s Branches had reported a rise in Napo membership over the last 12 months, I thought that all members would want to join me in congratulating Napo Cymru for achieving a remarkable 10% increase.
This reflects the local efforts of our activists and members in partnership with Napo’s strong central campaign that has been building in momentum since the victory against the proposals to sell off all remaining probation work earlier this year. This demonstrates why there has never been a better time to encourage your colleagues, who are not currently a member of a trade union, to consider joining Napo today.
New members working in a CRC will be guaranteed a vote on the Staff Transfer Agreement and become part of the collective effort to establish pay parity across the whole of probation and the eventual return of all Probation work into public ownership and control.
More news on the Transfer Agreement negotiations will be issued as soon as it becomes available.
Regards
IAN LAWRENCE
General Secretary
--oo00oo--
JTU 29-2019
STAFF TRANSFER TALKS ON-GOING
Negotiations are on-going to reach agreement on the best possible terms of transfer for CRC staff who are due to move either to the NPS (offender management staff), or to one of the proposed future private probation providers (interventions, unpaid work, rehabilitation and resettlement).
As previously advised, the unions are seeking an agreement which would allow CRC staff to move onto NPS pay and conditions immediately on transfer to NPS, as well as key protections for staff who are due to move to one of the proposed private providers.
The unions have insisted that the negotiations for the transfer terms cover all staff regardless of their eventual transfer destination. This means that we will ballot all CRC members in England and Wales on the eventual package of transfer terms.
Negotiations on the transfer terms, which took place earlier this week, closed the gap between the unions and HMPPS. However, there remain some key outstanding issues regarding redundancy, pensions and allowances which will not be resolved in time for the unions to ballot CRC members in England and Wales on the final package prior to the transfer of offender management work from the Wales CRC to NPS Wales on 1 December.
The trade unions will continue to work with HMPPS to reach agreement on the outstanding matters until we reach a position where we can ballot CRC members on the best possible transfer terms.
WALES OM TRANSFER TO GO AHEAD ON 1 DECEMBER 2019
In England the staff transfers are not due to take place until 2021. In Wales offender management work will transfer to NPS Wales on 1 December this year, with all other work in Wales transferring to the proposed private providers in 2021 on the same timetable as England.
As advised in our previous joint union bulletin (15 October) the unions asked for the Wales offender management transfer to be delayed to February 2020 to enable the negotiations to complete, but HMPPS were not prepared to do this.
As a result of the negotiations not being concluded, offender management staff who are working for the Wales CRC, and in scope of the transfer to NPS Wales, will move to the NPS on 1 December on their existing CRC pay and conditions.
This will be carried out under a statutory transfer scheme which will protect existing contractual pay and conditions. Where there will be procedural changes for Wales CRC staff moving to NPS Wales in relation to measures such as pay date, annual leave year, trade union deductions and other noncontractual terms, these are being dealt with as part of the measures consultation at Wales level with the unions in advance of the transfer.
BENEFITS OF FINAL TRANSFER TERMS TO BE BACK-DATED
The unions have obtained an assurance from HMPPS that, as and when the final transfer package has been negotiated, and subject to CRC members voting to accept that package, any enhancements will be applied retrospectively to Wales CRC staff who are due to transfer to NPS Wales on 1 December 2019 and backpay will apply to any increases due at the point of transfer.
AGREEMENT ON PROTECTIONS DUE TO SEETEC REORGANISATION UNAFFECTED
The protections secured by union reps relating to the reorganisation of the CRCs in Wales and the South West following the takeover by SEETEC are unaffected by the above negotiations.
These are separate protections secured around the SEETEC reorganisation and will apply up to the end of the CRC contracts in 2021.
Ian Lawrence General Secretary Napo
Ben Priestley National Officer UNISON
George Georgiou National Officer GMB/SCOOP
"The Ministry has chosen to end the CRC contracts in 2020, 14 months early, but this comes at a cost. When added to previous, unsuccessful, efforts to stabilise CRCs, the Ministry will pay at least £467 million more than was required under the original contracts." NAO report
ReplyDeleteYet Napo say:
"This important update explains the position in the current negotiations on the Transfer of CRC staff to either the NPS (Wales in December, and NPS England in 2021) or one of the proposed new providers of Interventions, Unpaid Work, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, after the cessation of all CRC contracts that year... In England the staff transfers are not due to take place until 2021. In Wales offender management work will transfer to NPS Wales on 1 December this year, with all other work in Wales transferring to the proposed private providers in 2021 on the same timetable as England."
So despite the alleged 'victory' of so-called 'renationalisation', the staff CRC contracts are going to run full term to 2021.
And in Wales "As a result of the negotiations not being concluded, offender management staff who are working for the Wales CRC, and in scope of the transfer to NPS Wales, will move to the NPS on 1 December on their existing CRC pay and conditions."
Another Napo triumph!!
This is not a triumph but its not a complete failure when you consider the leadership position. They are not in any lead role of power and nor do they have what is required to act or even manage any strategic position. This means they are reactive and unfortunately for members they are not the most able group and therefore are unable to manage with any real foresight. This means they can only deal with the current development and not in fact having been able to influence developments. This is a membership failure. They allow a lack of scrutiny and they welcome anything they are told. It is ludicrous to expect the MOJ to accept all CRC staff into NPS and then pay those new recruits the same as protected staff in terms conditions and pensions. The wage bill will break their projections currently in treasury commitment to a point where staff will have to go. The only way is to have the staff but on the cheap. Employment law actually provides for this and the employers know it. The problem is that NAPO do not appear to appreciate the issues properly. For example naively NAPO suggest it was or at least is within the gift of the MOJ to provide an extension to the Wales transition. That 1 act alone should tell us all they really are not of the capacity required for this role. The Law has required the NPS to resume case management task in Wales and this cannot be delayed. No is the only answer they could get. This should have been understood at the beginning of any talks and appropriate priorities laid out. The issue of nothing in writing no proper reports lack of committee detail and largely the odd leak from a facebook chatter group is all that NAPO are putting out and you have to be in their particular in club to get that sort of news. Napo needs to re engage its members and start to face the home thruths of their abysmal record. It must now after the AGM financial reporting that it officially on borrowed time seek to amalgamate\ merge napo into a more secure union. This to protect NAPO staff and provide NAPO members continuity for a union that represents members properly. This would be more favourable than the current incumbents deliberately running down the reserves to enjoy a redundancy boon at the end of next year or so.
DeleteHmmm... "Be in no doubt that they have yet another crafty, strategic calamity to unleash upon members very soon"
ReplyDeletehttps://www-mirror-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/government-partly-blame-murder-boy-20792479.amp?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#aoh=15727000943535&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-news%2Fgovernment-partly-blame-murder-boy-20792479
ReplyDeleteBlame for the murder of a boy aged five lies partly with the Government for its failed attempt to privatise probation services, an official report has warned.
DeleteAlex Malcolm was beaten to death by his mother’s boyfriend Marvyn Iheanacho, 41, who had been released on licence from prison six months before for assaulting five exes.
An inquest jury last month found a series of errors due to disastrous probation privatisation “contributed to the death”.
Coroner Andrew Harris yesterday said increased workloads and understaffing, plus shortages of approved hostel places for ex-cons, were factors.
He demanded the Government make changes to probation services within 56 days, warning: “There is still a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”
Alex died when Iheanacho attacked him after he lost a trainer in a park in Catford, South East London, in 2016. The murderer got at least 21 years.
Calling for action, Dr Harris, coroner in Southwark, South London, told the Government: “Your response must contain details of action taken or proposed to be taken, setting out the timetable for action.”
Alex’s mum Liliya Breha, 32, of Bromley, Kent, said: “The government should definitely take responsibility.”
Privatisation reforms under Chris Grayling cost almost £500million, yet killings by ex-inmates on parole increased 63%. All probation work is now being renationalised.
Harry Fletcher, of the Victims’ Rights Campaign, said: “The government’s own assessment in 2013 warned the probation changes would be very high risk – but they went ahead anyway.”
A Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “The National Probation Service in London has undertaken a huge programme of work to improve standards and better protect the public.”
Political illiteracy is a real problem in this country. There is a huge gap between the minority knowledgeable and fluent, and the majority. Thatcher and her spawn have hog-tied Unions and all but killed off an understanding of collectivism as a thing, and that democratic processes are, for all the right reasons, painstaking and require slog, organisation and sticking with it over time. I am sick and tired of comments whining on about the shortcomings of Probation's Union, and I am guessing from those who are not within it. Those of us slogging away at this are putting in hours and days in the interests of members and our profession. So say something useful, encouraging, give us some support FFS, or direct your forensic dismantling of poor planning and policy making at those who are responsible for the mess we are in, not those trying to get some progress
ReplyDeleteOstrich Response like this defends the indefensible and supporting the failings is a mistake. The analysis in part illustrates the unions are following a process not able to be part of the required change.
Delete@19:07 - I cannot fault the efforts of those who are truly & diligently working for the benefit of members but now I'm looking from the outside, having previously been disabled by stress whilst on the inside (mea culpa), its difficult to praise the union's pisspoor strategies & the shambolic outcomes that have been damaging to napo members & probation staff in general. Napo presents itself as *the* union for probation staff, but I have neither seen nor experienced little if any benefit as a napo member. NOMS/HMPPS have called the shots for years now, with probation staff losing out year-on-year as napo feebly signed whatever they were asked to, e.g:
Delete* negotiated loss of car & other allowances
* negotiated surrender of annual leave
* & then how many years without pay rises?
* punitive pay scale arrangements
* non-negotiable 'sifting'
* the magical 7-month 'no redundancy' clause
* loss of EVR (except for a precious chosen few)
It is right & proper to acknowledge that incredible efforts to hold boundaries & fight injustices have been demonstrated at local branch level, but...
... nationally the union has spent the last 10 years - and god only knows how much of the members' subs - making an arse of itself.
Someone, somewhere - please explain:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44973258 July 2018
"Existing contracts will now end two years early, in 2020 - and will be replaced with 10 new ones under changes that will cost the government £170m..."
Napo 2019 (as above):
"These are separate protections secured around the SEETEC reorganisation and will apply up to the end of the CRC contracts in 2021."
Mission creep?