Judy McKnight's Napolog

Web log of Napo's general secretary

February 15, 2008

Annual Increments

The Probation Service Employers have indicated that at the March National Negotiating Council, (NNC), they are likely to say that, instead of paying increments in the normal - and agreed - way from 1 April, they intend to hold them back and include them in the 2008 pay negotiations. They accept that they are a contractual right and have said that when it is agreed how much the increments should be, they will be then paid retrospectively from 1 April 2008.

I have been personally outraged by the possibility of this ploy which keeps a little more money in Probation Areas budgets for a few more months, at the expense of Probation staff.

This is the not the way for our Employers to raise morale and win the hearts and minds of staff who have never been performing harder or more effectively, despite the uncertainty generated by the constant changes and reforms.

This position has not yet been formalised, and we still hope that Probation Areas might change their mind before the NNC meeting.

We have therefore sent a briefing to Branches asking them to meet with Probation Area Chairs to put the case for increments to be paid in the normal way.

If the Employers don’t budge, we might well need to consider industrial action this year.

I still hope that it won’t be necessary, but members will need to consider if it is right to sit back if the Employers were to act in such a shabby way.

Here is a copy of the Briefing sent to Branches

Download file

Posted by jmcknight at February 15, 2008 06:31 PM