CIRC 053: PAY CUT TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE FOR PRISON OFFICER GRADES

The Government announced the outcome of the Pay Review Body recommendations including the PSPRB. The link to the recommendations that Government have accepted is as follows https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/psprb-twenty-first-report-on-england-and-wales-2022

The National Executive Committee will be meeting in due course to consider a fuller response but in the meantime please find attached a Press Release that has been sent out.

Our members in the public sector prison service have endured pay cuts since 2010 and this pay award although higher for some grades is effectively 4% which does not keep pace with inflation.

We also recognise our members in the NHS setting are being treated very much the same and we will liaise with other health unions to determine our approach to below inflation pay rises. Likewise, we will liaise with the Scottish National Committee on issues on pay that affect our members in Scotland and the Area Committee in Northern Ireland.

These are extremely difficult times for all our members with the cost-of-living crisis. As you know the POA launched a legal challenge on the failure of the Government to adhere to recommendation 3 in 2020 which would have given an uplift of £3000 consolidated. We note that the PSPRB again recommended this, and it has been accepted by Government. The NEC will continue to liaise with our lawyers on this issue as at present there is an application to the European Court of Human Rights and indeed a Judicial Review pending on the equality impact assessment pertaining to recommendation 3 in 2020.

The POA will also be liaising with other trade unions in the TUC as we note many unions have already announced that they will be doing consultative ballots of their members. Of course, there are specific sections of our membership that can take industrial action up to including strike action but there are punitive thresholds that need to be met for that action to take place.

As stated, once the NEC has met, we will come out further with detailed assessments and indeed a strategy going forward.

 

Yours sincerely                        

 

STEVE GILLAN
General Secretary

Attachments

• PR-236-22-PAY CUT TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE FOR PRISON OFFICER GRADES.pdf

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