Talks on a future pay system get underway

While members have been asked to vote on the outcomes from the 2015-16 pay negotiations, we have wasted no time in pressing NOMS to engage with us to consider how we can get to grips with reviewing the probation pay system that was agreed way back in 2008.

At that time, this agreement represented a major breakthrough in terms of improving base pay and creating a mechanism that would allow individuals to progress towards the top of their pay scale  by way of stepped incremental increases, and would see those who had reached the maximum rewarded by a revalorisation process that provided what we know as 'headroom'.

Unfortunately, all these good intentions came a cropper with the election of a Tory/LibDem coalition in 2010 with their pay freeze policies which have endured all the way through into this government whose disdain for public service workers is plain for all to see.

All of this is bad enough, but add in the fact that this administration is determined to bring an end to automatic incremental progression on top of their 1% limit on available funding and we have a stack of problems.

Solving them wont be easy, but Napo is determined to explore every opportunity to create something better that than what we have at the moment, hence the early engagement, where we have already made it clear that we have to see some momentum on this top priority for our  members.

We are in the process of preparing a members mail out for next week. This will explain our position on pensions, pay and harmonisation of policies, and where we are in other negotiations such as E3 in more detail.

Our next meeting with the Minister

This is due to take place in about a month’s time and we would be pleased to receive any direct views from members about the issues that you feel Mr Gove and other politicians should be made especially aware of at this stage, whether you work in the NPS or a CRC.

Whilst Ministers will claim that its still too early to form a definitive conclusion about the post-TR situation, there is by now plenty of information about issues that are recurring throughout the Probation landscape; some of which may even be capable of resolving if the the right amount of commitment is shown from the top.

This particular Secretary of State claims that he is a great believer in solutions to problems, and we think that we will get a better hearing if we are the ones coming up with them as opposed to simply again saying: 'we told you so.' If you have something that you would like us to consider including then please contact Tay, here at Chivalry Road (tburke@napo.org.uk) who is collating incoming material.

Trade Union Bill

This pernicious legislation approaches its final stages and a debate in the commons but despite the governments determination to push this through at all costs, some changes have been secured following the huge lobbying campaign of Peers organised by the TUC.

Over the past four months, a coalition of crossbench, Labour and Lib Dem peers, have inflicted three defeats on the government, and forced ministers to concede on a range of issues.

These included:

• A review into electronic balloting
• The recommendations of the select committee into political funding, including making opt-in to political funds mandatory only for new joiners
• Powers to cap facility time

This week we heard that the government have made some concessions on check-off allowing unions to carry on with check-off where they pay the costs to the employer. That's ironic for the NOMS unions however, since check off was taken away from us all a long time ago (another opportunity again to remind members of the importance of making that switch to Direct Debit.)

I have also heard that further safeguards have ben secured on the appointment and activities of the Certification Officer – in that they will be free from ministerial direction and that the levy on unions will only pay for part of the costs of the CO, excluding the costs of external investigators. They also conceded a slower timetable and more safeguards in how any cap on facilities time in the public sector is imposed (this is something we will explore). 

As the Lords stages draw to a close, the fight returns to the Commons where the Bill will be debated on Wednesday 27 April, when MPs will be asked to vote on reinstating some or all of the things the Lords removed or amended. As we well know Lords victories don't always cut it with the Commons but the TUC have provided the following link (click here) asking every union member to get back in touch with their MP.

Support the Junior Doctors Rally next week!

This, as advertised on our website here, takes place next Tuesday evening and it would be good too see as many members from London and the environs as possible. It starts at St Thomas's Hospital at 6:00pm and heads to the Department of Health.