Joint Trade Union Pay Bulletin – NPS

JTU 23/20 9 October 2020

PAY TALKS CONTINUE, BUT NPS TO PAY CONTRACTUAL INCREMENTS THIS MONTH

Napo, UNISON and GMB/SCOOP are still in negotiations over this year’s pay award for NPS staff. We know that members are frustrated and angry about the delay to them receiving their increments, which were due back in April. The unions took this up with the Probation Minister at the time in order to try to move progress, so it is of grave concern that members have had to wait this long for something which is a contractual entitlement.

We can now report that, having submitted our pay claim on 12 March, the unions received an opening pay offer from NPS on 23 September. Since that time, we have been in talks with the employer to seek to improve this initial offer.

While these talks are ongoing, it has been agreed that, in the interim, NPS should implement the pay progression element of the award immediately. This is because eligible staff, who are not already at the top of their pay band, are contractually entitled to progress to the next highest pay point in their pay band with effect from 1 April 2020. This was confirmed to staff earlier in the year by NPS.

Members who are eligible for a pay increment in April of this year can therefore expect to receive payment for this in their October pay packet, including all monies due backdated to 1 April this year. The unions have been reassured by NPS that this will include backpay in relation to unsocial hours payments and overtime earned since this date.

Members will remember that the unions put in the following pay claim for 2020 back in March this year:

· A two-year award to cover the 2020 and 2021 pay years

· An increase in the value of all pay points above the Retail Prices Index (RPI) of inflation on 1 April 2020 and 1 April 2021

· An increase in the value of all NPS allowances above the Retail Prices Index (RPI) of inflation on 1 April 2020 and 1 April 2021

· Automatic Pay Progression (in both years of the claim) in line with 2 year pay modernisation award

· Deletion of Pay Band 1

· Removal of Pay Band Overlaps

The unions remain committed to delivering against our pay claim, so while increments will be paid this month, the remainder of this year’s pay award will be the subject of further negotiations. The final offer to come out of these talks will be put to members by the three unions in a ballot as soon as it is available.

Ian Lawrence Ben Priestley George Georgiou

General Secretary National Officer National Officer

Napo UNISON GMB/SCOOP