I've had three jobs in different areas of the public sector (heavily unionised) over the past ten years and all three of them have annual appraisals and probationary appraisal type affairs. Contrary to the belief of some on the other thread an appraisal doesn't take all day - the meeting will be perhaps 1 to 2 hours. You have to fill in the form before that meeting and work out what progress has been made since your last appraisal. Of course it depends on your manager (or maybe how seriously your manager's manager takes it) as to whether it is more than a paper shuffling exercise but that's the same with everything. After the meeting your manager provides you with an action plan - things to improve (if there are any) and training you should undergo over the course of the next year. You both sign off on that.