Members in the trade union representing parole officers, NAPO, have voted to strike in an indicative ballot. Prisons becoming the real headache…
90.67% of members have voted in favour, mostly over pay. National Chairman Ben Cockburn said:
“This ballot wasn’t about members being too busy. It was professionals warning they cannot protect the public properly when there are not enough people to do the work. Probation staff make decisions every day with life-changing consequences for the people we work with, victims and the public. If excessive workloads prevent those decisions being made properly, the consequences can be devastating.
The government cannot keep treating probation as the place where the consequences of failures elsewhere in the criminal justice system are dumped. If you overload probation, you increase risk. It really is that simple.”
The trade union wants more of the £700 million in funding for probation to go in pay increases to improve “retention” and “safer workplaces and manageable workloads.” I.e. don’t invest it in better tech…
There will now be a formal postal ballot and potential action, which could mean walkouts, by the end of the year. Just in time for the early releases to be in full swing…
Lord Khan in the Telegraph: “I hope, and I say this in a non-pompous way, that the public service I do will bring rewards in this world and the hereafter,” he says. “I’m hoping the work I do is earning me Brownie points.”