PROBATION officers should go on strike if they are offered a pay rise of less than 3 per cent, Napo delegates decided this weekend.

At their conference’s closing session on Saturday, members hit out at years of government-imposed pay restraint.

Last year higher grades had their pay frozen.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight delegate Tina Williams said this amounted to “a slap in the face to the hard-working staff who kept services running during the TR dispute [then justice minister Chris Grayling’s fragmentation programme].”

A motion, passed unanimously, called for industrial action to protest against the pay freeze in the current year.

Ms Williams said this should focus on action short of strike.

But the motion also calls for union negotiators to accept no less than a 3 per cent wage increase in the next round of negotiations “as recompense for the hard work, dedication and loyalty that staff have shown in recent years.”

“Failing this agreement, we should consider taking action — up to and including strike action,” Ms Williams said.

She warned that if probation officers failed to take a stand in this way, employers would see it as a “green light” to attack the profession in other ways.

The motion must be ratified by the union’s executive to become policy as the AGM was inquorate at the time it was heard.