Please see below link to the Police and Justice Service Group Executive Annual Report. The report is a summary of the work of the Service Group over the last 12 months and will be submitted to the Police and Justice Police Staff Conference on 6 October 2016.
Welcome to the new National publication that covers areas of the union’s work that will be of interest to UNISON’s Police Staff members.
Please follow this link Police Staff Quarterly
Below: National Police & Justice Chair Caryl Nobbs
Pay Bulletin No. 9
13 February 2015
87% VOTE TO ACCEPT REVISED PAY OFFER
An overwhelming 87% of those police staff voting in the recent UNISON pay consultation ballot have voted to accept the revised pay offer of:
• 2.2%, or £400, increase (whichever is the greater) on police staff pay points with effect from 1 March 2015
• 2.2% increase in standby allowance with effect from 1 March 2015
Union members in Unite and the GMB have also voted to accept the offer. As a result the Trade Union Side of the Police Staff Council has formally notified the police employers today that we have accepted the offer on behalf of police staff in England and Wales. The offer will be paid over the 18 month period from 1 March 2015 to 31 August 2016 and UNISON hopes that forces will be able to pay the increase in March salaries.
UNISON POLICE STAFF STANDING UP FOR BETTER PAY
Members will remember that we were offered a 1% pay rise back in the summer last year, but that the offer was rejected and members indicated their willingness to take industrial action to seek to improve it. This eventually led to UNISON having to ballot members formally for industrial action and strike dates were set for December. Thankfully, we did not have to take this action, as the pay talks continued and finally produced the offer that members have now accepted. UNISON is rightly proud of our police staff members’ resolve to get a better pay deal for 2014. When we stand together for what we believe in, we can achieve results.
PAY DEAL IS GOOD FOR THE POLICE STAFF COUNCIL
Your pay and conditions are negotiated nationally at the Police Staff Council for England and Wales. UNISON supports national collective bargaining as the best way to protect and enhance our members’ terms and conditions. This pay deal shows that the trade unions and the police employers on the Police Staff Council can work together to reach negotiated settlements in difficult economic times.
Talks are continuing with the police employers in order to reach a resolution to our 2014 pay dispute.
In order to facilitate these talks, UNISON, Unite and GMB asked the employers to extend the period in which we could call industrial action to the end of January. This extension was agreed before Christmas. As a result, the industrial action which was due to have taken place in December was withdrawn.
The extension of the period in which we can call industrial action is providing a ‘window’ of opportunity for our negotiators to seek an improved offer which we could recommend to members
.
However, in order to comply with legislation, the unions will have to issue notices to police forces – during the week commencing 12 January – for future industrial action should the talks not prove successful. Each trade union will notify its members separately over the necessary preparations for industrial action, in the event that this proves necessary.
The unions want to reach a negotiated settlement to the 2014 pay dispute and we are continuing to work in good faith towards this aim. Further information on the progress of the talks will be issued as soon as possible.
Police Staff Pay Bulletin No. 5
VOTE YES IN THE POLICE STAFF PAY BALLOT
By now you should have received your UNISON pay ballot paper at your home address. We have sent out over 30,000 ballots to members like you across England and Wales. UNISON is asking you to vote YES to industrial action to improve this year’s 1% pay offer.
If you have already voted that’s great, and thanks for sending back your completed ballot paper. Please do encourage your colleagues to vote as well. Talking about the ballot at work can really make a big impact, so please do discuss the issues with the people you work with.
Police staff have always delivered a good turn-out in previous ballots and UNISON is relying on you to deliver again now. It really is important that you vote, so that your voice can be heard.
So if you haven’t yet voted, or even if you haven’t yet made your mind up, please do vote. Your views are important to us. Without your vote, and support, UNISON cannot be as effective as we would like on your behalf. UNISON is standing up for police staff, but we can’t do it without you.
WHY SHOULD I VOTE?
We know that it is never easy to vote for industrial action. UNISON would never ask you to do this unless we believed that it was totally necessary. A strong YES vote will show the employers that we are prepared to defend your pay and protect your living standards.
UNISON appreciates that you are committed to your job, but the police employers and the government are taking your loyalty for granted.
They will not return to the negotiating table to improve the 1% offer unless we can show them that you are serious about defending your pay. The government will not change its policy on pay restraint voluntarily.
WHAT ARE THE FACTS?
• Due to inflation, the value of your pay has fallen by 13% since 2010. In plain terms, it buys you 13% less than it did four years ago.
• If current inflation and pay trends continue, your salary will have lost 30% of its value by 2018
• Holding back on pay has not saved a single one of the 19,000 police staff jobs which have been axed since 2010
• Average pay settlements in the private sector are now running at 2 to 2.5%. We are told that the economy is picking up. But you are not seeing any of the benefits.
SEE HOW MUCH PAY YOU HAVE LOST
UNISON has produced a police staff pay calculator to show you just how much money you have lost as a result of the pay freeze in 2011 and 2012 and the 1% pay rise last year. You can access the calculator by following this link: http://paycalculator.unison.org.uk/police-staff
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Call us FREE on 0800 171 2193
or join online at: www.joinunison.org
Pay and Reward Review: Member Consultation
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Police Staff Council Pay and Reward Review: Member Consultation
As you will be aware, the Police Staff Council is undertaking a wide-ranging review of the pay and conditions of police staff working for forces in England and Wales. As a consequence we wish to consult members on issues for the first part of the review of the Police Staff Council Handbook. Members are asked to reply to consultation by no later than Friday 21st November 2014.
The attached PSC Trade Union Side bulletin was published in July to brief members on the work of the PSC Pay and Reward Working Party. The working party met for a second time on 27th August and agreed to a set of meeting dates for the rest of this year to progress the first part of the review – namely a review of the PSC Handbook of Terms and Conditions.
There was a further meeting of the working party on 9 October at which the parties agreed to amend the timetable for the review of the Police Staff Council Handbook. This means that the working party is now aiming to have concluded the Handbook review by 31st March 2015, rather than 31st December this year. This change to the timetable was agreed in order to give all parties the opportunity to consult with their constituents by the end of this year, with a view to opening substantive talks in early 2015, with the benefit of our respective consultations having taken place in the interim. A copy of the amended terms of reference for the review, with the revised timetable, is below for information.
In order that UNISON can best represent the interests of our members in this work, we now wish to consult members on what issues you would like us to take forward in the review of the Handbook. The attached consultation paper sets out the items which we are already committed to raise with the employers, and we would welcome any views on additional issues which you think we should be highlighting in the Handbook review.
Members are asked to respond to the consultation by no later than Friday 21st November. This is with a view to UNISON inviting branches to a seminar on Friday 28 November to review the outcome of this consultation and to inform our negotiating position going forward.
The consultation paper also asks members to provide us with some key information to help inform UNISON’s negotiating position in the talks.
Members are being asked to respond via email (details are on the force intranet system)
Please respond to this consultation by no later than Friday 21st November.
Trade Union Side Bulletin – July 2014
This circular updates branches on the work of the Police Staff Council (PSC) Pay and Reward Review.
Branches will be aware that in the aftermath of the Winsor Review of police staff terms and conditions, the Police Staff Council agreed, in principle, to reconvene its Pay and Reward Working Party to see whether the way in which police staff in England and Wales were paid and rewarded was still fit for purpose. You will remember that the Winsor Review collapsed for police staff, because the Winsor recommendations for police staff were largely negative and did not provide the basis for a negotiated offer to be put to our members.
The election of Police and Crime Commissioners in 2012 led to the Employers Side of the PSC to ask for a period of reflection in order to consult with PCCs and Chief Constables on what issues their Side would like to bring to a reconvened working party. Following this period of reflection, the Working Party met on 3 July 2014 and agreed to terms of reference to inform the Pay and Reward Review. These terms of reference are set out at Appendix A.
You will see that the terms of reference are wide-ranging and ambitious. The Trade Union Side remains firmly of the view that any modernisation of the way in which police staff are paid and rewarded must include an examination of the pay and grading systems in use by each police force at local level. We are also committed to ensuring that any reform of pay and conditions be embedded in the wider police workforce reform agenda, including the emerging College of Policing People Strategy, workforce modernisation and professional development opportunities for our members, whatever their role and wherever they work. Equality considerations must be central to any outcome of the review.
The terms of reference also include a review of the terms and conditions set out in the PSC Handbook, which form the bedrock of the contracts of employment of police staff in most forces in England and Wales. The Handbook was last reviewed in 2004, so the time is certainly right for the Book to be opened up again to ensure that it remains fit for purpose. The Trade Union Side sees this as a positive opportunity to bring the Handbook up to date and to deal with some of the unresolved questions that the Handbook has thrown up since its creation in 1996. It has been agreed to prioritise the PSC Handbook as the first element of pay and conditions to be reviewed by 31 December 2014.
For the PSC Employers’ part, they have produced a position paper to inform their approach to the Pay and Reward Working Party. A copy of this paper is attached at Appendix B. You will see from the paper that the Employers propose the following principles for the review:
Fairness
National consistency and local flexibility
New arrangements should be simple to implement and administer
There should be a link between pay, competence and contribution
Any distinctions in pay and other conditions of service between police officers and police staff should be objectively justified
Affordability
You will also see from the paper that the Employers’ reform agenda identifies potential savings which could be achieved across individual forces in the following areas:
Reducing payments for working additional hours (reduce double time payments on Sundays and Public Holidays
Reducing payments for working unsocial or irregular hours (reduce time and a half for weekend work)
Reducing payments for working shifts (remove/reduce double time payment on Sundays and Public Holidays)
In return for these changes, the Employers may offer national role profiles for some police staff jobs (PCSOs, Detention Officers etc), a minimum national redundancy package and arbitration and conciliation arrangements in the event of disputes.
The Trade Union Side will be consulting branches shortly on how we should approach the PSC Handbook Review.
The next meeting of the PSC Pay and Reward Working Party is due to take place on 27 August. Branches should note that the full Review is likely to take until the end of 2015 to be completed. If the Review leads to proposals to change national terms and conditions, these would be the subject of an all member consultation. Changes to current terms and conditions would only come about if a majority of those voting agree to any proposed changes.
Police Staff Council
Pay & Reward Review 2014
Terms of Reference (Revised 09.10.2014)
The parties to the Police Staff Council agree to review the following matters in relation to the modernisation of the pay and conditions of police staff in scope of the Council:
The Terms and Conditions in the Police Staff Council Handbook
How police staff basic pay is determined and administered by forces in England and Wales, and whether such arrangements remain fit for purpose; to include:
Job evaluation
Grading schemes
An equality impact assessment of any proposed changes to police staff pay and conditions
Relevant information to inform the review, to include:
PSC pay and numbers statistics
The relationship between police staff pay and reward and workforce reform in the widest sense; review to include consideration of:
The People Strategy for Policing
Force collaboration/mergers
Workforce modernisation
Professional development opportunities for police staff
The Police Staff Council recognises that these matters contain short term imperatives and medium term objectives for both Sides. The first item to be reviewed will be the terms and conditions in the Police Staff Council Handbook; to be completed by 31 March 2015. All the other items above are to be reviewed by no later than 31 December 2015.
Subject to the outcome of consultation, the Police Staff Council aims to implement any agreements emanating from the work of the review from 1 April 2016.
UNISON leicestershire Police 