2016 Pay Award

NCOA has reminded the employer that their members in the National Crime Agency, irrespective of role they perform, continue to work in an environment that is challenging, stressful and at times, dangerous!

Maintaining motivation and morale is essential to securing the commitment of our officers, and to that end, the success of the organisation and its’ aims.  That motivation and morale remains under real threat whilst the Government continues to impose its generic civil service pay cap upon the National Crime Agency. For this reason, and those expressed by members during the staff survey and recent café conversations, NCOA remain committed to pay reform and the development of a new pay structure with progression payments built in.

In 2016, all staff will find themselves even worse off than 12 months ago (even after a 1% uplift) due to the recently imposed additional salary deductions. The 1% increase to the Grade minimum and maxima to ensure a consolidated award for many (but not all) of the staff, is little consolation to some of the NCA‘s experienced officers who have found that their consolidated pay rise fails to cover even the basic increases in NI & Pension contributions.  It is noted that, the minimal uplift to both individual salaries and  London Weighting by 1% was not supported by the NCA (who again proposed a weighted approach) but was deemed entirely appropriate by the Pay Review Body who chose to award all officers the same increase pending the development of the new pay structure.

Whilst the offer for members without powers mirrors the NCARRB results earlier this year, it is sad to report that, the Home Secretary has yet again failed to recognise the uniqueness of her officers within the National Crime Agency and continues to align them with the rest of the civil service. Accepting that 1% of the pay bill is the limit that could be used on this occasion, it is disappointing that the organisation has shown ‘no appetite’ to replicate NCOA submissions to seek a greater settlement, across all areas for their staff, despite the significant increases in Pension & NI contributions.

The NCOA remains opposed to performance related pay (PRP), and will continue to challenge the payment of such awards, whilst it benefits a small minority of staff and is disproportionately weighted toward higher grades. During these financially straitened times this is a significant detriment of those performing well, and on the back of an already disputed system of assessment [Staff Survey results Dec 2015].

In formally ‘rejecting this offer’ on behalf of our members, the NCOA would reiterate that we continue to seek collaborative and meaningful engagement with the NCA to shape the future pay structure which will adequately remunerate our members and provide progression through the pay scales within a defined period of time.

The below table shows the uplift to be applied from August 2016 and to read the full NCOA pay submission go to www.ncoa.org.uk/news