May 2019
Unions make our anger about poor engagement very clear
Trade unions recently wrote to the KSS CRC Chief Executive Suki Binning. Here we set out our serious disappointment at the lack of tangible progress by SEETEC senior management following agreed actions from the earlier engagement meetings with the unions. The letters are attached to this joint bulletin and articulate the range of issues where we feel no progress has been made.
Pay
In these communications we have among other things been strongly critical of the disinformation that has been issued by some senior managers. Evidence reaching us suggests that it is being said that unions are preventing staff from getting a pay rise! This is a complete fabrication on the real picture which is that SEETEC have failed to undertake appropriate due diligence and have made an unacceptable pay offer which is both inadequate and lacks any acknowledgement of some key facts. Further news on pay will follow.
Engagement with unions
After some quite farcical events leading up to the cancellation of planned pay discussions which should have taken place on 23rd May, it has at last been possible to agree that talks on pay and the issues referenced above can now get underway on 6th and 7th June.
The unions have made it very clear that we have reluctantly made significant concessions (which have caused personal pressures on a number of our reps) to help accommodate these latest changes to scheduled talks. We now expect to see a reciprocal show of commitment from the KSS CRC Chief Executive.
As can be seen from the attached correspondence there are many areas where the level of engagement between KSS CRC/Seetec is no better than the last failing contractors Working Links. While there are many questions to be answered about exactly where all the money has gone to from their insidious and incompetent regime, it’s obviously not reached the pay packets of their former staff.
Our concerns about meaningful engagement and agreeing a programme where the unions can be treated as partners instead of a nuisance, is a situation that needs to be improved and fast. Meanwhile we are making preparations for a series of trade disputes with plans for supportive industrial action should they become necessary.
Future of Probation
All union members and prospective members will have welcomed the news of the Governments dramatic policy U-turn which will see 80% of offender management work move to 11 new NPS regions by the time that the current CRC providers are shown the door by April 2021 (latest) or sooner if there is a Labour Government in power.
While this is a victory for the probation unions it does not give us all that our members are demanding. We do not see any justification for retaining Intervention and Programme work in a so called ‘mixed-market’ and we will continue to demand:
- The total reunification of all probation work to public control
- The harmonisation of all staff on to NPS Pay rates before the ending of CRC contracts
Many as yet, unanswered questions
As members will know, the plan for OM work to transfer to Wales by December this year was announced well before the recent Government U-Turn.
This means it is imperative that the transition plan for Wales is the subject of national and local discussion to ensure a smooth transition. The unions are insisting that we be given access to the transitional board meetings between NPS and KSS CRC and that the overarching transfer arrangements for staff will be the subject of high level negotiations similar to those that resulted in the National Staff Transfer and Protections Agreement back in 2013.
The intended roadshows for KSS CRC staff about the transition plans will have no substance whatsoever without there first being a National agreement in place and we will suggest that SEETEC spend that money improving on their pay offer.
The change in policy for probation is welcome but it now means that we are in a further period of uncertainty as consideration is given to how OM work and staff are to be moved out from failing contractors by 2021.
One thing that has already been made clear to senior HMPPS and MOJ leaders is that whatever arrangements are reached on the selection criteria, the likes of SEETEC and other CRC providers must have no part in deciding who goes into the NPS and should merely do as they are instructed by their paymasters. We have suffered four and a half years of an irredeemably flawed Probation service in which all CRC Providers including KSS CRC in some aspects are implicated. Members in this or any other CRC would be well advised to trust the news coming from their trade unions as opposed to speculative comments from employers who may not even be around beyond 2020.
Join a union now!
If ever there were was a need to emphasis the importance of belonging to a trade union this joint bulletin spells it out very clearly! Transforming Rehabilitation and the disastrous impacts of part -privatisation have featured large in reports from the Justice Select Committee, the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee, as well as the Chief Inspector of Probation.
The unions are campaigning for:
Fair pay for all
The reunification of all probation work
An end to all privatisation
A moratorium on formal action against staff for failures not of their making
Restoration of local bargaining across KSS CRC
Immediate action to reduce workload pressures
Staff to be treated with dignity and respect.
Can you afford to leave the struggle to everyone else?
Ian Lawrence Siobhan Brown/Simon Dunn Helen Coley
General Secretary Regional Organiser Regional Officer
Napo UNISON GMB/SCOOP