Napo in negotiations

Two big meetings today. The first with Sodexo senior leaders to resume discussions on the workforce reductions that they announced before Easter and on which we had secured a pause in the proceedings.

A brief position statement has been agreed and appears elsewhere on the Napo website. As you will already have gathered, we are into a complex discussion where the contrasting factors of moral responsibility, the role of the MoJ and the ability to honour the terms of National Agreements have been the main drivers.

It’s fair to say that compared to our previous exchanges, we had a much more constructive discussion than we did last time out, but be assured that the unions made the expectations of our members abundantly clear.

Once I give my word that Napo will maintain confidentiality until we have had time to consider what was discussed, then I will stick to it; and your Officers and Officials will form an initial response prior to next Wednesday afternoons meeting with the company and the one with our Napo Sodexo Reps on Friday.

I acknowledge it is frustrating for members who are waiting for outcomes, but it serves no purpose to issue piecemeal information or make knee-jerk responses, especially as a number of areas that were discussed today still need a good deal of clarification.

ACAS now involved in pay talks

As I said a few blogs back, Napo stands ready to do what we can to try and assist Unison in finding a way through the industrial dispute that they have embarked upon and which is scheduled to commence with a one day strike of their members within Probation next Thursday.

Whilst Napo have also been in dispute about the lateness of the offer we are not in the same place industrially, and your Probation Negotiating Committee meet on June 19th to review the position and make a recommendation to the NEC. This has been further complicated by the decision by NOMS to impose the offer for 2014/5 pay.

Support for UNISON

In the event that the planned action by Unison goes ahead next week, Napo has issued advice to members about not taking on work that could be described as being applicable to Unison's members, and we are still in discussion about issuing further clarification where this is required.

Again, (and especially as I am writing this in the intervals during this afternoons talks with ACAS) I am unable to let you know the outcome of the meeting at this juncture, but as you would expect we are doing all we can to find common ground.

More as soon as.