Pay Award – Make your voice heard
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE MAKES 0% PAY OFFER
AS we reported before Christmas, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that its pay offer for probation staff in the NPS and CRCs for 2014 was 0%.
All you get under the proposals is the pay increment you were due to get anyway this year. For most staff there is nothing else on the table.
This appalling news could hardly have come at a worse time for probation staff, arriving as it does after 12 months of disruption, uncertainty and stress caused by Transforming Rehabilitation. The fact that the Ministry of Justice delayed announcing the offer until the week before Christmas just adds insult to injury.
UNISON and Napo submitted a pay claim back in April for an above inflation increase on all pay points, London weighting and relevant allowances with effect from 1 April. The latest retail price index (RPI) measure of inflation, for November this year, is 2%. Back in April when your pay rise was due, RPI stood at 2.5%.
VALUE OF YOUR SALARY DOWN 16% ON 2010
Probation staff have been very badly treated by the Government when it comes to pay. The Coalition Government’s pay freeze for public sector workers means that most probation staff have only had a 1% pay rise in the last four years.
This means that the purchasing power of your salary has fallen by a shocking 16% since 2010. It is no wonder that you are finding it so hard to make ends meet.
The public sector pay freeze is set to continue into the future, and if pay rates for probation staff do not improve, the purchasing power of your salary will just continue to slide. This simply cannot go on forever.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
A schedule of meetings has been issued
19th January Oakland House 12-2pm
20th January Minshul St 12-2pm
Other dates to follow
There are tough times ahead in both the NPS and the CRCs. Defending national terms and conditions from attack is going to be one of UNISON’s highest priorities. How we respond to this insulting pay offer will send an important message to the MOJ of just how serious we are in defending the terms and conditions we have built up over years and years of patient negotiating.
You Branch Committee met last Thursday and voted unanimously to reccomend that our members Reject the offer
All probation members of UNISON will now receive an indicative ballot form which must be returned by 23rd January