Poverty Wages
For the second year in a row, the woeful 3 year Probation Service pay deal is about to be overtaken and eroded by increases in the National Living (FKA Minimum) Wage, which is set to rise to £11.44 per hour from April 2024.This is when the entry Scale Point for Band 2 staff is currently set to increase to a whopping £21,250... except that will in fact be £750.56 less than the legal minimum, with an effective hourly rate of £11.04.
Of course, the Service will have to respond, as they did last year, to shamefully increase Band 2 pay to that legal minimum. But what a disgrace it is, that we are now a service that is consistently paying poverty wages. Tragically, even those staff looking at progressing to Scale Point 2 in April 2024 are facing an effective hourly rate of £11.48 (£22,086 per annum). How are we supposed to recruit our way out of a staff retention crisis when our vital reception and admin staff - the backbone of the service - are offered such a paltry sum?
Meanwhile, the voluntary 'Real Living Wage', to which over 14,000 businesses nationwide are signed up to pay their staff, is set to rise to £12 per hour in April 2024. Then there are also other local Living Wages, such as in Oxford where that is set at £12.49 per hour and has over 100 local employers accredited.
So what incentive is there to join Probation, or to even stay? I imagine there are lots of jobs paying those £12+ rates that don't involve getting yelled at by distressed clients, or where perhaps you'll have colleagues that aren't all stressed and burning out.
And where are the Trade Unions in this? Where are the reassurances that they're on the case and are holding the employer to account? And why not use this as a bit of point scoring? No doubt the reason is that they too, are ashamed at how their 'hard fought' pay deal has turned out...
Please, to all Band 3s and upwards - appreciate and value the Band 2 staff that you have in post. They are doing a hard job in hard times and are not getting the renumeration they deserve. And if they go, it's unlikely there will be a queue of people looking to replace them.
Fingers crossed that the next pay deal negotiators set their sights a tad higher than the bare minimum.
excellent post!
ReplyDeleteThe rate of pay won't attract staff but it's their union agreed rate for that job. Unison as well as Napo are the main admin union . Napo opened up its recruitment to admin staff a good few years back under lawro but clearly he has done nothing 5o advance this groups pay. The reason that is , is because Napo will not have any collective negotiating rights agreement for this group. If your admin paying Napo ask where is the agreement to negotiate term. Also where is the Napo plan to upgrade this groups terms. There will not be either but ask unison too.
ReplyDelete"We valued our admin staff" Talk is cheap
ReplyDeleteMost of my CAs where I work are incredibly hard working and an utter asset to Probation. It doesn't matter who works, supposedly, 'below' you- were all colleagues trying to achieve a hard job.
ReplyDelete“Please, to all Band 3s and upwards - appreciate and value the Band 2 staff that you have in post. They are doing a hard job in hard times and are not getting the renumeration they deserve.”
ReplyDeleteAll probation staff work hard. No probation staff are getting the financial remuneration they derserve. Probation admin staff earn less because that is what the job is, an admin job. If you can get a better paid job elsewhere then go for it.
Wow, anon 22.03, talk about missing the point of the OP.
DeleteI get the point. Yes an admin may have “poverty wages” but so does a PO after they add up all those unpaid hours. It’s proven that asking for pity is not going to help any of us. I don’t agree with the “appreciate particular staff because they do a difficult job and earn less” approach. We all do a difficult job and we all learn less than the band above. Everyone should appreciate bands above and below. One cannot work without the other.
DeleteI agree with the OP. Our CA’s are not standard admin workers, they problem solve, make decisions and prompt and support PP’s in their role. Receptionists monitor behavior in the waiting area and inform officers of concerns, and they undertake difficult conversations face to face and on the phone. They deserve more than admin staff in roles outside Probation who may be given work and told what to do. Our CA staff are pro-active and manage their own priorities based on the work that moment - as we all know one thing can happen that then takes over your day. This is not probation Band versus Band as to who should earn what. This is about us all getting the money we deserve for our role and also recognising that the extremely poor starting salary for Band 2 will soon again be scraping below the governments own minimum. I think everyone should go up a band for an easy fix. CA to B3, PSO to B4, PO to B5, SPO to B6.
DeleteIt depends where you work. Probation, hospitals, GP surgery’s, DWP, the police station, the airport, many reception and administrative roles take on additional duties. Everyone problem solves and everyone deserves more.
DeleteI don’t see the reason for the “to all Band 3s and upwards - appreciate and value the Band 2 staff that you have in post” message. It’s even less necessary if said because they earn less.
I’m sure us Band 3 staff and above do appreciate your service! If the director grades and above do not (they really don’t give a rats arse about us) then I’m sure we’ll get used to a load of admin vacancies too!
I fully appreciate what the CA's do on my team of PSO's. We couldn't function without them as they do all the background stuff that supports our work. If they didn't, we would sink without trace. I value them highly and yes they should get a decent wage - just as we all should for the responsibilities we hold.
ReplyDelete