Probation staff have voted for strike action and action short of a strike in a dispute over pay and workloads, the union Napo announced on Friday.
Napo, which represents probation and family court staff, said an overtime ban will begin on 23 November. No strike dates have been set. The union said walkouts would follow at a later stage if its leadership "deem that option to be necessary".
The result moves the dispute on from a non-binding indicative ballot in August to a statutory vote with a date for action attached. It comes as the union says the probation service is under added strain from the prisoner early release scheme.
Members voted in two separate ballots. On pay, 74.8% of those voting backed strike action and 85.8% backed action short of a strike. On workloads, 75.84% backed strike action and 87.4% backed action short of a strike.
The pay ballot followed a 5% offer for 2026 from HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). Napo had asked for 12% and has said the offer falls short.
"The high turnout by our members, and the result vindicates the campaign to achieve a pay rise to make up lost ground in comparative pay with other staff employed within HMPPS," said Ian Lawrence, Napo's general secretary.
He said the vote reflected the "serious anger at the state of probation workloads which were already in crisis before the latest version of the prisoner early release scheme".
Mr Lawrence cited a high turnout, but no turnout figure for either ballot was given in published reports of the result.
"Workloads are in a chronic state, with Napo members undertaking thousands of hours of unpaid overtime just to stay on top of the demands placed upon them," the union said.
The Ministry of Justice defended the offer and said supervision of offenders would continue.
"While we are disappointed that some have voted against this competitive deal, it will not change our first responsibility of protecting the public and we have robust contingency plans in place to ensure offenders are still subject to the same rigorous supervision," a ministry spokesperson said.
Napo's position differs from that of UNISON, a separate union with members in the probation service, which recommended that they accept the same 5% offer. UNISON's ballot closed at noon on Friday. UNISON says that, added to a 6% rise for 2025, the offer would amount to an 11% increase in the value of pay points.
The statutory ballots follow an indicative vote announced in August, in which Napo said 90.76% of those voting supported potential industrial action over workloads. The union said at the time that the ballot was not a response to the early release scheme.
Responding to that result, the Ministry of Justice said it was "recruiting 1,300 probation officers this year and investing in technology that can drive down admin workloads".
The service was 1,556 full-time-equivalent probation officers short of its target at 31 March, according to HM Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics.
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