As you are aware, the Agency recently made personal offers inviting many of you to assimilate onto NCA terms. It was hoped that many of you would accept the terms on offer which would permit you to move forward in your NCA career.
In the background the Agency has been running two programmes alongside the Assimilation offer, Pay Reform and Organisational Transformation. Whilst these issues may be seen as separate there are aspects of both which may have some bearing on your decision to accept/decline the assimilation offer.
At the time the assimilation offer was made you were provided with a set of FAQ's to provide more detailed information to inform your decision. It is our position that the FAQ's related to 'What if' scenarios, whereas now, in June 2017 (if not before) every indication is that the Agency has a plan which they will be looking to implement as part of the Transformation programme. Those changes may affect you financially which is why you must not be kept in the dark at this critical time.
When the most recent offer was about to be signed off we did not feel comfortable with the timescales and following high level engagement at the 11th hour, the NCOA were able to secure a 1 month extension to the original sign up period in recognition of the uncertainty relating to Pay Reform. We hoped there would be some clarity before now on such pay reform, unfortunately a snap election put paid to that and there is little more information at this stage than there was when the offer was made.
With Transformation we have attempted to engage with the employer as far back as December last year but with limited success. However, more recently having again raised the matter at the Joint National Consultative Committee, we secured an agreement at the highest level that we would be engaged and consulted as Transformation begins to take shape prior to implementation.
Since this time we have been alerted to anticipated transition within your business area which may come about as part of Operational Transformation. During the period you have been expected to accept/reject the assimilation offer it has also been brought to our attention that the employer has declined to answer critical questions relating to your role and position moving forward into the very near future.
Whilst we have no specific knowledge of any changes which will negatively impact either accepting assimilation or rejecting the current assimilation offer, on your behalf we have engaged at very senior level requesting that they provide the following information as soon as possible;
1. Provide clear information about plans for Borders staff in the future under Transformation proposals.
2. Provide clear information about what impact these Transformation Proposals will have on Borders officers’ allowances should they retain them as part of their assimilation offer.
3. Provide clear information as to which ‘Borders’ sites are likely to disappear, shrink or be re-populated as part of the Transformation process.
We have reminded the organisation of its own values around Transparency and Fairness and highlighted that in order to be fair whist you are being asked to make this critical decision, there has to be transparency about what will happen to your role and specifically the impact on your Borders Allowances moving forward.
So far the employer has suggested that if you have any concerns that you raise them with your line manager or HR Business Partner. Unfortunately, it has been reported to us that further information is currently 'embargoed'.
We will report back to you in due course,