‘Transfer Policy’
·
The Joint Branch Board’s (JBB)
Annual General Meeting on 1st March 2006 agreed that Members should
be fully appraised of the JBB’s position regarding Force Reference Document D7
‘Selection and Deployment’.
·
The JBB has been involved in the
Force’s ‘Transfer Policy’ for over thirty years, frequently contributing to
policy revisions.
·
The JBB was instrumental in
ensuring the advertising of all vacancies and the adoption of post and person
specifications.
·
The JBB has participated in
decisions to deploy Members, now undertaken by the Compulsory Transfer Board.
·
The JBB has also sat on the
Transfer Appeal Panel.
·
Elected JBB Representatives have
represented individual appellants at the Transfer Appeal Panel, and this is the
only occasion when individual representations are made.
·
The JBB’s involvement on both the
Compulsory Transfer Board and Transfer Appeal Panel is to represent the collective
interests of its Members.
·
In August 2005, concerns were
raised regarding the potential for the Selection and Deployment Policy
to be viewed as indirectly discriminatory.
·
The concern centres on a potential
view that by setting a time line as a base point for short-listing officers for
unfilled vacancies i.e./ ‘5 years in post’ it is more likely that male officers
than female officers will be short-listed.
·
The JBB’s concerns are not
predicated on a single ongoing case.
·
Over a period of months efforts
were made to secure information which would either refute or confirm the view.
·
The matter was discussed at the
December Branch Board meeting and a ‘News Item’ was placed on the JBB’s web
page, www.northernpolicefederation.com
, on 15th February.
·
Your Representatives have been kept
appraised of the situation and of the legal imperatives which the Board faces.
·
The fundamental principal applying
to all decisions made regarding any selection process is that the outcome is
based on legitimate criteria.
·
Regardless of the present impasse,
on behalf of the Membership, the JBB can, and does, establish the basis for any
decisions reached.
·
The JBB is unanimous in seeking
return to full participation in the process and discussions are ongoing to achieve
that aim.
·
Should you have any queries
regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact your Local
Representative.
John
B Finnie
10th March 2006
JBB
Secretary
