The National Chairman

October 2006

POA members in England and Wales and Northern Ireland since 2000 have had their pay determined by a supposedly independent Pay Review Body.

Annual Conference determined that we would ballot the membership in England and Wales in regard to what action we could take to secure an independent Pay Review Body. On 15th August 2006 the result of the national ballot in England and Wales was announced.

Since that time, the National Executive Committee and union as a whole has been locked in dispute with the Prison Service in England and Wales.

The National Executive Committee on calling for a Special Delegates Conference on 7th September 2006 believed it had achieved a settlement to the dispute and was in a position to recommend a draft “Terms of Settlement”. These terms of settlement have never been signed. On further investigation it has been discovered that these are not able to be fulfilled at this time by Government. The POA NEC are continuing to seek a negotiated settlement to this dispute. The Special Delegates conference proved the depth, if proof was needed, of the commitment of branch officials to debate the issues. Many branch officials came to the rostrum and argued vehemently that this draft settlement should not go ahead. The NEC put forward a contra view on the information they had at the time this information supplied by the Prison Service has since proven not to have been communicated correctly by the Service, in as much as it had not been proofed by all interested parties in Government.

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

This Union is continuing to build for the future, modernise and become more professional with every passing day. That is down to all of the NEC, FTO’s and support staff, and of course the branch officials and membership. The Prison Service and Government now realise they can no longer treat us with contempt, ignore or abuse agreements or threaten us. If they do we will “stand up” and be “counted”. But, be under no illusion the fi ght continues everyday and will, until we regain our full Trade Union Rights, achieve equality for “all our members” in line with other free and independent trade unions and receive decent pay awards for the professional work we “all” do.

TRADES UNION CONGRESS BRIGHTON

I have recently attended the TUC and the report on this will be covered by LLW and the two delegates Al Miller (Aylesbury) and Dave Cook (Swaleside) who attended. The rest of the delegation was made up of Jim Dawson Full Time Officer and Brian Traynor NEO. Brian Caton General Secretary was also a member of the delegation and was re-elected to the General Council of the TUC. Brian has served on the General Council for the past five years with distinction. What fellow trade unionists think of Brian is shown by him coming top of the election poll for the third year running. Congratulations Brian. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those involved in representing the POA.

It was an interesting Congress for no other reason that it was billed as the last Conference to be addressed by Tony Blair as Prime Minister. The Prime Minister took the question and answer session from delegates. I put the question on behalf of the POA and asked a question in regard to future privatisation of public sector prisons and the return of full trade union rights, as promised by the Labour Party. To say the Prime Minister was evasive in his response would be an understatement.

The POA also moved two motions at Congress, one dealing with the tragic murder of Zahid Mubarek. Congress full endorsed the views of the POA.

The delegation also took an active part in fringe meetings in regard to the public private debate. The General Secretary and myself also took the opportunity to question the Home Secretary John Reid on the future of the public sector prison service and matters relating to our members when we met him at a social function.

The POA is an active member of the TUC and we must continue to use our membership to this organisation to press forward our views for a better future for working people in the United Kingdom.

PAY SUBMISSION ENGLAND AND WALES 2007

The work on preparing our pay submission is complete and this has been submitted to the Pay Review Body.

We will now have to wait and see if they accept our submission and recommend a decent pay award to Government.

The submission is the first stage of the process and will be required to give oral evidence in November as part of the process.

This union must continue to strive for fair treatment and equality for all our members. There will be times when there will be differences with the leadership and strong views will be addressed. We must never return to the dark days of infighting that we saw in period of 1999 to 2000 where personal agendas outweighed the necessities and needs of the union.

Colin Moses
National Chairman