The trade unions submitted a pay claim to the employer just over a year ago
JTU 02-2025 Probation Pay Claim 2025_0.pdf
After an unprecedented delay of more than 12 months the employer has presented us with a below inflation pay offer that fails to recognise the value of our incredible work as part of a crumbling criminal justice system, especially delivering successive government policies to reduce the horrific state of prison overcrowding in England and Wales.
Workloads across the Probation Service are excessive and have been for years. The Probation Service has never been properly staffed and it’s not clear if it ever will be. Vacancy rates and high levels of sickness – mainly due to mental ill health, in large part caused by poor working conditions – push the demands on staff still further. Probation staff complete, by our estimations, hundreds of thousands of hours of unpaid overtime each year, which this employer has shown a willingness to repeatedly exploit. Moreover, the new Sentencing Act will bring huge increases in work to the Probation Service over the coming months.
Ministers and senior leaders in HMPPS can issue all the statements and kind words they want to tell us how much they appreciate us, but it means nothing if they then refuse to pay us a decent wage. Their empty platitudes don’t pay our bills!