As I was adjusting this blog, playing with settings etc the ITV news came on and said that the prison officers in England and Wales are on strike. The Prison Officers' Association says the strike will be 24 hours and it is staging the strike - which follows a ballot of members - after pulling out of a no-strike agreement with the government.
The government said the officers were acting illegally. So what are they going to do? Sack everybody? They can't sack individuals because it's unfair. It's their first walk out in their 68 year history. Their Union, the POA (Prison Officers Association) who have 28,000 members say that 90% of their members due on duty have gone on strike. Prisoners are being kept in their cells and the POA believe that the Ministry of Justice (sounds like something from 1984) will try for an injunction to stop the strike this week.
An independent pay review body recommended a 2.5% pay rise but the government staged that rise as 1.5% in April and a further 1% in November.
The POA says that, due to inflation, this reduces the value of the award, making it a below-inflation pay increase.
Sound familiar?
by the way, in case you didn't know there is a Police Federation petition which is campaigning to stop the government undermining the Edmund Davies Formula and keep our pay rises at the rate of inflation. You can find the link here:
http://www.polfed.org/
Wednesday 29 August 2007
Something in the air?
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1 comments:
If they kept the prisoners in their cells paying penance for their crimes instead of making the prisons like hotels then the risks would be less and there would be no need for pay rises.
That money could go to those police officers on the front line who don't have the safety of a steel door between them and the perpetrators.
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