Justice Department move challenged

Press, 20 August 1982, Page 4

Justice Department move challenged

PA Wellington The Justice Department has stopped the use of parttime probation officers, a move which will increase the workload of existing staff and could lead to industrial action. The part-timers have been writing about 10 per cent of the 20,000 probation reports which go through the courts each year. They, were introduced after officers took industrial action in 1977 over heavy workloads. The Public Service Association’s general secretary, Mr W. E. B. Tucker, said yesterday that the re- . moving of the part-timers was likely to lead to a return to the 1977 situation. The 1977 action also led to workload guidelines of 50 cases and eight court reports a probation officer each

month. The. P.S.A. maintains these are maximum loads, but the department wants them to be flexible. The ban on part-timers, mainly former social workers or . probation officers,'will save the department about. $90,000. Last year they wrote 1800 reports costing an average of $5O each. However, the assistant secretary for probation, Mr Graham Armstrong, who withdrew approval for their hire, said that it was not a cost-cutting measure and might be reintroduced in the future. Mr Armstrong said that a review of staffing showed there was the capacity to do the work within the present full-time salaried staff.

Asked why the. Auckland

probation office had to employ' parMimers to write 25 per cent of its court reports. Mr Armstrong said that the inference,, was that some officers were not working to capacity. Auckland’s district probation officer, Mr Murray Hay, however, disputes this. He said yesterday that after the loss of the part-time pool, his staff had reaffirmed they would stick to the eight reports a month maximum set in the guidelines. He expected the effects would begin to be felt in two or three weeks, These would include long delays in remands, with increased pressure on prisons, and courts might choose to sentence some cases without probation reports, contrary to recommendations of the Penal Policy Review.