Letter to Tim Flesher CB re Prison Grades Pay Settlement 2019 NI

See the letter to Tim Flesher CB re Prison Grades Pay Settlement 2019 NI below:

 

Dear Tim

PRISON GRADES PAY SETTLEMENT 2019

The letter from your predecessor, Jerry Cope, dated 30 July in relation to the pay settlement for prison grades in Northern Ireland for 2019 refers. I am writing to thank the Prison Service Review Board for their approach to this pay round, the recommendations, and the targeting of pay to support recruitment and retention.

NIPS submitted the pay remit to the Department of Finance and subsequently met Sue Gray, the Permanent Secretary and her officials to discuss this is more detail. DoF were not in a position to grant approval to the NIPS pay remit until the NI public sector pay guidance issued on 31 October.

I am pleased to report that DoF has provided approval for the 2019/20 pay award, including with some further restructuring to ensure a minimum hourly rate of £10 an hour for PCO and NCO grades; the continued alignment of the OSG pay point, PCO maximum and NCO maximum with the CPO minimum; and improvements to the future maxima of CPO, SPCO, PPCO, and SO post 2002 grades. As I stated in my letter of 9 August, however, our commitment on the SRA is to closely match, rather than fully align, as it is our view that the rates should be subject to annual negotiations between Management and the POA, and the PSPRB recommendations, specific to the Northern Ireland Prison Service.

NIPS colleagues have been liaising with your Secretariat on the timing of the publication of the report on the Prison Service Pay Review Body website. NIPS will action the pay changes and pay arrears, as appropriate, in salaries at the end of November, and lay a copy of the PSPRB report in the Assembly library.

Yours sincerely

 

Peter May