- Conference
- 2015 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 5 June 2015
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference, the Cabinet Office Guidance of Trade Union Facility Time & Facilities in the Civil Service, published in October 2012, by the union bashing Tory government has had a devastating impact on our public sector colleagues in the Civil Service and, as a consequence, our even closer colleagues in the Probation Service who are now part of the Civil Service.
The guidance applies to all government offices and departments but, because the Probation Service is now part of the Civil Service, Probation Service UNISON reps, branch officers, as well as their members are already experiencing firsthand the terrible impact of the Cabinet Office Guidance.
The guidance hinders the ability of UNISON Police & Justice reps to represent their members and restricts activists’ access to appropriate training and development, as it limits the overall time allowed as facility time spend to 0.1% of departmental budgets – shared between all recognised Trade Unions. Meaning, in some forces, UNISON reps and officials would have to split the allocation of facility time with their colleagues in the other unions that are recognised by their force.
The guidance, worryingly, curtails 100% facility time, meaning there will be restrictions on full-time branch officials, and it also limits the time a person can hold a Trade Union post to 3 years. This would not only hit our smaller Police & Justice branches particularly hard it could also mean the loss of experience and knowledge in all our branches as experienced branch officers and reps will effectively be forced out of post.
Some UNISON police staff branches may already be experiencing a review of facility time by their Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables but, not on the same scale or to the same extent as our colleagues in the Probation Service, who are probably the first sector within the Police & Justice service group and maybe within UNISON as a whole to feel and suffer the full impact and consequences of the Cabinet Office Guidance, so this is very much a Police & Justice service group issue.
The Cabinet Office Guidance is nothing short of a direct attack on Probation Service branches’ right, legal right, to organise, campaign and represent their members, and our colleagues in the Probation Service are doing all they can to counter the consequences of the Cabinet Office Guidance but, with the election of a Tory majority government there is a very real danger it will soon affect all sectors of the Police & Justice Service Group, including Police Staff branches.
So that UNISON Probation Service branch officers and reps can continue to represent their members effectively and to help ensure all other Police & Justice branches don’t suffer the same fate as our colleagues in the Probation Service Conference calls on the Service Group Executive, by all appropriate means, including working with the National Probation Committee, to:
1)campaign to protect facility time;
2)seek to challenge the legitimacy of the Cabinet Office Guidance on Trade Union Facility Time;
3)Produce a toolkit to help and allow Police & Justice UNISON activists engage with the campaign to protect facility time by highlighting the impact the Cabinet Office Guidance has had on our Probation Service colleagues.