Ministers defend pay offer for probation workers amid strike threat

The UK Government has defended a pay offer to probation workers which has been rejected and sparked a threat of strikes.

Members of Napo have voted in favour of industrial action over pay as well as their workloads. In a statement, the union confirmed: “We will be calling on our members in Probation England and Wales to commence a campaign of Industrial Action on Monday 23 November.”

Initially, staff will still work their contracted hours but will not undertake any overtime. Members have also voted in favour of strikes, but no walkout dates have been confirmed yet.

The Ministry of Justice said most probation trade unions had accepted its “competitive” pay deal.

A spokesman said: “Probation staff do a vital job protecting the public, which is why we have put a strong offer on the table giving every worker a further 5% pay rise, which follows the biggest probation pay increase in over a decade alongside record investment.

“We’re also recruiting an additional 1,300 officers to significantly cut workloads.

“While we are disappointed that some have voted against this competitive deal, it will not change our first responsibility of protecting the public and we have robust contingency plans in place to ensure offenders are still subject to the same rigorous supervision.

“We will continue to work closely with trade unions on this issue.”

Napo general secretary Ian Lawrence said the vote in favour of industrial action result reflected “serious anger” at the state of probation workloads he claimed were already in crisis before the Prisoner Early Release Scheme.