The National Chairman

April 2005

PAY. PAY. PAY

IT MUST BE QUESTIONED WHETHER THIS UNION IN ENGLAND AND WALES CAN CONTEMPLATE ENTERING INTO A MULTI YEAR PAY AWARD WHEN THE THREAT OF MARKET TESTING BY NOMS IS BEING USED AGAINST US. The England and Wales Prison Service and Scottish Prison Service have both settled their pay awards for 2005. For the England and Wales Prison Service, this will be the fourth award decided by the Prison Service Pay Review Body.

The award is to be 2.5% for unified grades, excluding Senior Officers who will receive 3%.

There may be those who question whether the POA receives a fair and equitable deal from the PSPRB but, it has to be stated, in the four awards since the PSPRB came into existence they have been higher than in previous times. Every trade union including the POA will strive for free collective bargaining when it comes to pay awards. Although many in the public sector are governed by Pay Review Bodies, the comparator for ourselves in the POA has to be with Scotland; the awards given by the Scottish Prison Service through the POA in Scotland using single table negotiations not being subject to a Pay Review Body.

The SPS awarded the POA and other trade unions represented at the single table bargaining 3%. In Northern Ireland, our members are subject to a Pay Review Body, the same Body that conducts business with England and Wales. What we must look to in the future is to which system serves POA members best, Pay Review Body or single table negotiations?

Currently the difference is marginal in the final figure, but we must be fully aware and on our guard to any attempts to change our terms and conditions through a Pay Review Body. For changes to be brought in Scotland the vehicle is in place to deliver negotiated changes through the trade union collective bargaining mechanism. The Pay Review Bodies in England and Wales and Northern Ireland do not have, in the opinion of the POA, the remit to change the terms and conditions of the remit groups they cover. The future holds a great deal of uncertainty in regards to Pay for all POA members, the thrust of all our employing bodies is for long term pay awards. The POA in Scotland, until recent times, had a three year pay award. The negotiations just completed are for a single year pay award. The PSPRB in England and Wales and Northern Ireland make reference in their most recent report to a possibility of a future multi year pay award. We cannot discount a multi year pay award but any such award would have to be totally ring fenced against inflationary factors, in the time scale of the pay award and subject to a national ballot for all of those remit groups affected. There would also have to be guarantees that in the time scale of any multi year pay award there would be the ability to return to the negotiating table to compensate for any major financial changes of circumstances linked with guarantees on pensions and terms and conditions.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE

This month’s edition of Gatelodge contains the motions to be discussed at our Annual Conference. Annual Conference should be the body that formulates the future policy of our union. It should not be the forum to decide personal issues or employment issues in regard to POA employees. The focus of Conference should be on the big issues facing the union. The defence of our pension rights, the defence of our jobs in the public sector and the advancement of our professional standing in the criminal justice system. The place of the POA in the criminal justice system and the trade union movement should be at the very forefront. We cannot maintain our standing as a respected trade union if we use Conference as a sounding board for personal grievances. The professional standing of this union will be gauged by the media and other outside agencies by the way we conduct our business at Annual Conference. No one wants to be part of a neutered Conference, but a Conference that delivers must be a Conference that delivers for every member of the POA, not just those with the loudest voice. The POA must be a campaigning union; the place to campaign for pension rights and the rights to be employed in the public sector should be and must be our Annual Conference.

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