Inspecting Ranks Need To Know Their Rights

INSPECTORS and Chief Inspectors are working extremely long hours without getting paid for overtime and there is “a responsibility in this organisation to call it out”, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Inspecting ranks are under strain and it is affecting their home lives as well as their desire to go for promotion, the Federation says. The national PFEW has launched a campaign for Inspectors and Chief Inspectors to know their rights around rest days, overtime and being on-call.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent and Secretary Dave Baines have been surveying Chief Inspectors and Inspectors within their force and say it’s an issue that needs to be looked at urgently.

Steve said: “We are hearing some really concerning figures about how many hours our the Inspecting ranks are actually working, and not them being able to take the time back. That’s putting up barriers for the right people to get promoted. It’s putting a real strain on people’s personal lives and family lives when they’re trying to do this. So we’re really worried about it.

“I think part of this is a culture that the Police Regulations don’t apply to Inspectors in the same way as Constables and Sergeants. So I think we need to see an end to Inspectors’ overtime being completely free, and maybe have a situation where they do a certain amount of hours for time back, and then it becomes paid.

“If some of them are doing a 60-hour week, and they’re not getting to claim that back, they’re actually earning less an hour than a Sergeant. So it’s wrong and it needs to be looked at urgently.”

Steve advised Inspectors and Chief Inspectors who were working extremely long hours to start recording their time so that the Federation could fight on their behalf.

He said: “One thing we find a lot is that these hours aren’t necessarily being recorded and it becomes part of the norm. People say: ‘I’ll work until 9 or 10 o’clock at night at the weekends.’ I say: ‘Well, do you make a note of that? Do you put it on a spreadsheet?’ and they say: ‘No, no. It’s not worth it, is it?’.

“There’s a perception that they might be seen as rebellious if they make an issue of that. Well, no. As a collective, we’ve all got a responsibility in this organisation to call this out. Inspecting ranks need to start logging what they’re doing. That can give us the evidence to go back to senior officers and say, ‘You’ve got a real problem here’.

“The people who really want to do this job are put off by the work-life demands, because they’ve got families and they’ve got lives outside of policing. We’re self-harming with this, quite significantly.”