9 January 2015
PROBATION PAY BULLETIN No. 4
VOTE TO REJECT 0% PAY OFFER FOR 2014
UNISON is recommending that you vote to reject the 0% pay offer which NOMS has made
to NPS and CRC staff for 2014 and indicate your willingness to take industrial action to seek
to improve it.
Your branch will be consulting you over the next few weeks on the offer. Please make sure
that you have your say and vote in the consultation. Your views are important. This is not a
formal industrial action ballot. If members indicate that they are prepared to take action, this
would require a separate industrial action ballot in accordance with the law.
THE OFFER IN FULL
In December last year, NOMS made the following pay offer for 2014 for staff working for
both the NPS and the CRCs:



Contractual pay progression of one pay point (i.e. one increment)
Removal of the bottom three pay points from pay band 1
A potential non-consolidated payment to all staff at the top of their pay band
The second and third point have yet to be confirmed, but given that NOMS claims that it has
only got 1% of the total pay bill to spend on the whole offer, once each member of staff has
received his or her increment, the money left over to fund any non-consolidated payment to
staff on the top of their pay band is going to be very small indeed. NOMS has not confirmed
what would be left over after paying increments, but as each increment is worth fractionally
below 1%, the remainder is going to be negligible.
In effect, this is a 0% pay offer for probation staff, because the pay progression part of
probation staff terms and conditions is a contractual right which cannot be withdrawn by
employers, unless this is agreed by members or their trade union. Last year, probation staff
got a 1% pay increase, as well as their increments.
NOMS claims that this offer is in line with government pay policy, which removes scope for
employers to negotiate pay settlements beyond a 1% ‘pay remit envelope’ and restricts
awards to contractual pay progression only, where these apply. However, this same
government pay policy was in place last year and was not applied to probation, because
staff received a 1% pay rise, as well as their increments.
NOMS TO IMPOSE PAY PROGRESSION
As a result of the delays in bringing this ‘pay offer’ to the table, NOMS is now going ahead to
impose the contractual pay progression element of the offer on all NPS and CRC staff. The
Trade Union Side of the NNC has made it very clear to NOMS that we have not sanctioned
this imposition.
NOMS has had to write to all CRC staff to ask for their permission to access payroll data
from their CRC to enable them to impose the pay increment. The reason for this is data
protection legislation. NOMS has asked any member of CRC staff who objects to providing
this data to make this known by no later than 9 January 2015. If no objections are raised,
NOMS will assume that consent has been given.
Under the circumstances, UNISON recommends that members take no action in respect of
the request from NOMS. This will ensure that members’ contractual entitlement to
increments and back pay is paid. However, UNISON is very clear that this action remains an
imposition and outside of any agreed negotiating process.
UNISON RECOMMENDATION: VOTE TO REJECT OFFER
UNISON’s Probation Committee met to consider the pay offer on 16 December 2014. The
Committee agreed to recommend that members reject the pay offer and indicate their
willingness to take industrial action to improve it.
The reasons for this recommendation are as follows:

In 2013, NOMS was able to award probation staff a 1% pay rise as well as an
increment, i.e. it chose not to strictly apply government pay policy to your 2013 pay
award

NOMS had a similar choice to make again his year, i.e. whether to offer you a pay
rise, as well as your increment.

Earlier this year, NOMS indicated that ministers were being consulted on this choice.
We have to assume that ministers made the decision to deny you a pay rise this year
and to just give you your contractual increment instead.

Unless we challenge the NOMS approach to pay this year, the same is likely to
happen again in the future.

UNISON believes that this is the start of an attack on the terms and conditions of
probation staff which they brought with them into NPS/CRCs from Probation Trusts

If we do not oppose this attack on your terms and conditions now, NOMS and the
CRCs will see this as a green light to worsen other terms and conditions.

CRCs will have budgeted for a pay rise for their staff in 2014. If this money is not
given to staff, it will end up going the new CRC shareholders.
For these reasons, UNISON is recommending that you vote to reject the 0% pay offer and
indicate that you are willing to take industrial action to improve it.
JOIN UNISON
Decent pay and conditions do not happen by accident and they cannot be taken for granted.
The terms and conditions which you brought with you into the NPS, or a CRC, in June last
year are worth defending; they are the result of many years of patient negotiation.
If you are not already a member of a trade union, UNISON encourages you to join us now to
help defend your pay and conditions going into a very uncertain future.
Call FREE on 0800 171 2193 or visit www.joinunison.org