- Conference
- 2014 Police & Justice Conference
- Date
- 24 June 2014
- Decision
- Carried
Conference condemns the decision of the Coalition Government to proceed with the split of the Probation workforce into the National Probation Service (NPS) and the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) on 1 June. Conference notes that the split was undertaken despite:
1)A formal request from the probation unions to the Ministry of Justice Permanent Secretary to defer the staffing split in recognition of the dangers inherent in separating the workforce;
2)The evidence set out in UNISON’s ‘Complicating Rehabilitation’ report that the split would be un-workable and place probation staff under unnecessary strain;
3)Major problems with the staff assignment methodology used to place staff in one or other of the new delivery bodies;
4)The obvious inability of the NPS to stand on its own two feet without significant assistance from the CRCs via Section 28 Agreements.
Conference further notes the detrimental impact which the split is having on the well-being of UNISON members working in both the NPS and the CRCs, on account of the increase in workloads and associated stress.
In light of the plans of the Ministry of Justice to now sell the CRCs to private sector bidders by the end of 2014 Conference calls upon the Service Group Executive to seek to:
a)Campaign against the sell-off of the CRCs to the private sector;
b)Work with sister unions Napo and GMB to oppose the privatisation;
c)Continue to lobby politicians over the dangers of the sale;
d)Publicise the dangers of the sell-off to the general public;
e)Organise and recruit in the CRCs and NPS to ensure that UNISON is in the strongest possible position locally to oppose the privatisation;
f)Continue the dialogue with the CRC bidders in an attempt to dissuade them from bidding;
g)Register local disputes, as necessary, in relation to matters such as workloads, work allocation, trade union facilities etc;
h)Adopt, if necessary, an appropriate industrial action strategy, in partnership with Napo and GMB, to resolve those trade disputes;
i) Work via UNISON’s Labour Link to influence Labour’s thinking on an alternative model to privatisation for a publically run and locally accountable probation service in line with the principles of Primary Justice.