Probation officers who are members of the Napo union have shown their support for strike action in an indicative ballot over workloads in the Probation Service.
According to Napo, 90.7% of votes cast in the month-long ballot, which closed on Monday this week, were in favour of strike action.
The union declined to provide turnout figures for the non-statutory ballot, however it said a “significant majority” of those eligible to vote had done so.
Unlike statutory ballots, which are required for strike action to be legal, indicative ballots do not need to exceed a turnout threshold of 50% of eligible members in order for the result to count.
Napo national chair Ben Cockburn said the result of the ballot should come as a blow to government as it prepares to increase the number of offenders managed in the community at a time when probation officers are already struggling to cope.
“This ballot wasn’t about members being too busy. It was professionals warning they cannot protect the public properly when there are not enough people to do the work,” he said.
“Probation staff make decisions every day with life-changing consequences for the people we work with, victims and the public. If excessive workloads prevent those decisions being made properly, the consequences can be devastating.”
He added: “The government cannot keep treating probation as the place where the consequences of failures elsewhere in the criminal justice system are dumped. If you overload probation, you increase risk. It really is that simple.”
Last week, union general secretary Ian Lawrence said the Probation Service is facing a crisis that is worse than the capacity crisis in prisons.
Napo said a statutory ballot for industrial action would be the next step if ministers and HM Prison and Probation Service fail to take “meaningful action on excessive workloads”.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for HMPPS, listed measures being taken to ease workloads for Probation Service staff.
“Our probation staff do a vital job, working tirelessly to cut crime and keep the public safe,” they said. “That is why we secured the biggest probation pay increase in over a decade over in April and are working to cut down workloads by recruiting 1,300 probation officers this year and investing in technology that can drive down admin workloads.
“While this ballot is only indicative, we are disappointed with the outcome and will continue to engage with Napo and other recognised trade unions.”
Despite its recruitment successes, the MoJ acknowledges that its latest published workforce statistics show a shortfall of 1,575 full-time-equivalent Band 4 probation officers as of 31 March this year.
It says there were 5,573 such officers in post, against a target staffing level of 7,148 – making a staffing level of 78%.