Probation officers to take industrial action over pay and early release scheme
Also reported by Guardian World
Summary
Members of the UK probation union Napo rejected a 5% pay offer and plan to refuse overtime from 23 November. The union linked its action to increased workloads from prisoner early releases, while the Ministry of Justice said it was hiring more staff and had plans to maintain supervision.Key Facts
- Napo members voted to reject a 5% pay rise.
- The union plans to refuse overtime from 23 November and may consider strike action.
- Napo says probation staff already faced heavy pressure before the early release scheme began.
- The Ministry of Justice says it is recruiting 1,300 additional probation officers to reduce workloads.
- The early release programme freed groups of 700, 650 and 650 prisoners on 1 October, 13 October and 10 November, respectively.
- Nine more release groups are expected over the next seven months, including about 250 prisoners serving sentences longer than 12 years on 9 June.
- A September inspection found that almost half of electronic tags used to track offenders were not fitted on time.
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