Dear Members,
It was supposed to be a 1-year anomaly when the 2022/23 NCA pay award was delayed 207 days and not received by our members until February 2023.
With the submission of the NCARRB report and recommendations to the Home Secretary, at the final NCA/TU pay engagement meeting of 2023, the NCOA sought an assurance that 2023/24 pay award be made in January 2024.
Therefore as 2023 comes to an end, and Parliament has now gone into recess. The delayed NCA pay award is clearly not a priority for your employer and the earliest delivery date for your delayed pay award is now February 2024. A second consecutive delay of over 200 days.
NCOA members continue to show their frustration at these recurring delays by their withdrawal of goodwill. Some members have chosen to not only stop making themselves available on an ad hoc basis when ‘off duty’ and have now also withdrawn from being available via an on-call rota. It has also been brought to our attention that a number of members who joined the Agency after October 2019 have found that their NCA contacts do not include any requirement to be on-call and have withdrawn from ‘voluntary’ on-call lists, accordingly.
We therefore strongly advise all NCOA members Grades 6 to 3, to check their contracts to establish whether they do or do not have any on-call restriction clauses included. We recognise that our members at G2 and G1 have different expectations placed upon them but can still withdraw their goodwill by working no longer than their contracted hours.
I am sorry that this final NCOA update of 2023 could not be more upbeat. It seems that the Agency have not learnt lessons from last year’s pay debacle and instead we all go into 2024 without real certainty as to when this year’s pay award will be made or what it will be for all NCA officers.
In the New Year we will be considering our next steps and intend to seek a direct engagement meeting with the Agency to push for swift resolution without further escalation. Workplace reps will be advised to work together to support members in a coordinated manner.
Please support each other at this time, withdraw your goodwill as this leverages the Agency to recognise the importance of this matter. If you have some time away from work, please try to enjoy it.
Regards,
Steve Bond
National Officer, NCOA