- Conference
- 2015 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2015
- Decision
- Carried
Many forces across the country will have an experience of shared service arrangements between forces sometimes know as collaboration. The North West is no exception to this but is concerned at the growth of collaboration arrangements that have, in our experience, proved to be an excuse for empire building and an opportunity to try and reduce jobs, grades and other terms and conditions. Unfortunately, despite UNISON in the North West exposing these issues, forces will continue on this path as they try to meet ongoing demand for cuts.
Conference understands that there is a varying degree of experiences as collaboration arrangements take place across the country, covering a wide area of subjects such as:
i) Secondments
ii) Reduction of terms and conditions to the lowest level
iii) Lead force responsibility
iv) Who controls the budget
v) Tenure of contract
vi) Consultation
Conference notes that since the formation of the Regional Special Operations Units, (RSOU), the numbers of Police Staff being moved through TUPE into RSOU has shown an increase with more moves being muted. This migration, into a centralised resource, has the following impacts:
a) As current staff leave post and are replaced with, local to RSOU Staff, a dying off of local knowledge will occur. This may result in a reduction in the overall performance of the unit and in some cases, potentially, loss of life.
b) A migration of UNISON membership from local Branches to the more centralised location.
This is a concern, to local members impacted by the proposed merging of Intelligence roles into a centralised location, but is also a concern in the event of the “bigger picture” of regionalisation revealing itself in due course; a weakening of the local UNISON Branch as members migrate, leave or are made redundant will occur.
Currently information sent out to all Branches Secretaries, of the Forces involved, is sparse with Out Of Force meetings called at minimum notice and no one Branch is taking the lead in this assimilation.
Organisation of a sub branch within the regional Unit, which is part of the new employers force, is essential with agreed facility time for the reps etc. This will allow the transition to be as smooth as possible for members, which in turn will help to retain membership, and have the potential to recruit new members. If the relevant organisation is not in place Police Staff that are being moved to the new unit may fall through the cracks in the system resulting in little or no UNISON support.
We cannot expect stewards from a different force to represent people who are not covered by the same terms and conditions and facility agreement. The current scenario is in place and unless steps are taken to “plug the gap” may result in lack of robust UNSION Representation within the RSOU. This in itself may result in the withdrawal of Members from the Union and difficulties in attracting new Members.
In order to create some consistency and coordinate experiences across the country, Conference calls upon the Service Group Executive to:
1) undertake to bring together a working group comprising of members of the National Police Staff Council (England & Wales) and a small number of Regional Delegates who are dealing with collaboration to produce guidance for branches.
2) survey members already RSOU’s to understand the impact of the fragmentation workforce as a result of the TUPE’s;
3) work with regions to understand the importance of facilitating the protocols for the creation of a UNISON branch at the RSOU level with agreed facility time to represent its Members.