Merry Go Round
More tales of public service workers released on very generous voluntary severance schemes only to come back to work through a revolving door employment process - in this report from the Times.
Who can possibly support the idea that every public pound in the UK is public money well spent.
Prison officers paid off then rehired in ‘merry-go-round’
Former officers are now the target of a recruitment drive Times photographer, James Glossop
By Richard Ford - The Times
A Prison Service recruitment drive is to target former officers who left with generous payoffs in the latest example of a public sector “merry-go-round” in which former staff are rehired.
Prison officers who are re-employed will be able to keep the taxpayer-funded payments if they have been out of the service for six months or longer.
More than 1,300 officers have taken advantage of a voluntary early departure scheme in the past two years. It has cost the Ministry of Justice almost £50 million in payments to officers alone. The figure amounts to on average £36,600 per officer.
Steve Gillen, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “They have let too many people go and they now know they have let too many people go and so there is to be a recruitment drive.
“If you were a member of the public looking in you would be astonished at the fact that people who have received a payoff might be recruited back on a different contract.” A total of 3,000 prison officers have left the service in the past two years including those who departed under a voluntary scheme that allows them receive up to a 21-month payoff.
Prison officer leaders say that many of those leaving were more experienced officers including those who had worked for many years at jails that have closed as part of the restructuring of the prison estate.
They believe that one reason why the service is willing to re-hire former officers when they have already had payments is that in the long run it is cheaper because those returning do so on lower salaries and with less generous pension arrangements. “That is what it is all about,” Mr Gillen said.
A Prison Service spokesman said : “The Prison Service is aiming to recruit around 1,000 prison officers over the next 12 months as it returns to normal recruitment levels. It will be drawing the attention of ex-staff to the recruitment campaign.”
There were 19,325 prison officers in publicly run jails in March 2012 and in the previous 12 months just 164 new officers were recruited, the lowest number for 14 years. Prison officer pay ranges from £18,600 to £28,900 a year, according to the Prison Service Pay Review Body. Officers working in the public sector had an average salary of £27,900 in November 2011, compared with an average of £21,400 for those working in private jails.
In addition to the recruiting of 1,000 new officers, the Prison Service is planning to contact directly about 70 selected former prison officers to offer them six-month fixed contracts to help overcome a “temporary” shortage of staff in London jails. The Prison Service is to contact them by letter offering them the opportunity to rejoin the service.
But the targeting of former officers will fuel controversy over a so called “merry-go-round” in the public sector in which staff collect taxpayer-funded redundancy and then rejoin the organisation on staff or in a consultancy role.
Figures release last month showed that one in six staff paid redundancy during the Government’s controversial NHS reforms has been rehired by the health service.
A Prison Service recruitment drive is to target former officers who left with generous payoffs in the latest example of a public sector “merry-go-round” in which former staff are rehired.
Prison officers who are re-employed will be able to keep the taxpayer-funded payments if they have been out of the service for six months or longer.
More than 1,300 officers have taken advantage of a voluntary early departure scheme in the past two years. It has cost the Ministry of Justice almost £50 million in payments to officers alone. The figure amounts to on average £36,600 per officer.
Steve Gillen, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, said: “They have let too many people go and they now know they have let too many people go and so there is to be a recruitment drive.
“If you were a member of the public looking in you would be astonished at the fact that people who have received a payoff might be recruited back on a different contract.” A total of 3,000 prison officers have left the service in the past two years including those who departed under a voluntary scheme that allows them receive up to a 21-month payoff.
Prison officer leaders say that many of those leaving were more experienced officers including those who had worked for many years at jails that have closed as part of the restructuring of the prison estate.
They believe that one reason why the service is willing to re-hire former officers when they have already had payments is that in the long run it is cheaper because those returning do so on lower salaries and with less generous pension arrangements. “That is what it is all about,” Mr Gillen said.
A Prison Service spokesman said : “The Prison Service is aiming to recruit around 1,000 prison officers over the next 12 months as it returns to normal recruitment levels. It will be drawing the attention of ex-staff to the recruitment campaign.”
There were 19,325 prison officers in publicly run jails in March 2012 and in the previous 12 months just 164 new officers were recruited, the lowest number for 14 years. Prison officer pay ranges from £18,600 to £28,900 a year, according to the Prison Service Pay Review Body. Officers working in the public sector had an average salary of £27,900 in November 2011, compared with an average of £21,400 for those working in private jails.
In addition to the recruiting of 1,000 new officers, the Prison Service is planning to contact directly about 70 selected former prison officers to offer them six-month fixed contracts to help overcome a “temporary” shortage of staff in London jails. The Prison Service is to contact them by letter offering them the opportunity to rejoin the service.
But the targeting of former officers will fuel controversy over a so called “merry-go-round” in the public sector in which staff collect taxpayer-funded redundancy and then rejoin the organisation on staff or in a consultancy role.
Figures release last month showed that one in six staff paid redundancy during the Government’s controversial NHS reforms has been rehired by the health service.
