The Probation unions are currently in urgent engagement with senior Probation management following receipt of a substantial number of communications from our Programme Facilitator members on the Job Evaluation (JES) appeal (trade union) result.
We have articulated our serious concern about the status of the Subject Matter Expert during that appeal, the scoring of the original Facilitator JES panel being changed at the appeal stage, and as yet, unanswered questions about whether there was a clear understanding that the methodology for scoring required agreement between the parties. We also relayed the anger and frustration of members who are telling us that they are increasingly losing confidence in the application of the Job Evaluation Scheme.
An urgent meeting between the Unions and the National JES Team is taking place today where we expect a full explanation of the above matters. We also need to be confident that consideration of the remaining individual JES appeals will be conducted in accordance with the Probation Job Evaluation Agreement, which is a jointly owned process between unions and management. It is important to note that the Trade Unions have no issue with the scheme itself. A jointly owned Job evaluation Scheme is an important aspect of our collective bargaining. The issue lies with the administration and application of that scheme.
We have already served notice that if the current activities around the remaining individual appeals do not comply with the agreed process, this work will have to be revisited. It's anticipated that the Programme Facilitator appeals will be considered over a number of days.
Our appreciation goes to those Napo members who have shared their feedback with us. This has been taken into the above discussions and we will be issuing further news as soon as possible. Napo will also be expressing our concerns about this issue with high level management at next week's meeting of the Probation National JNC.