Officers Feel “Devalued” By This Year’s Pay Award

A senior Police Federation Chair has reiterated concerns that officers feel “devalued” by this year’s pay award.

Police were offered a 4.75% pay rise by the Government earlier this year, an offer that was lower than deals made with other public sector workers.

Steve Kent, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said it was a “kick in the teeth for cops” and they had struggled to accept it.

He said: “It really does tie in with the need to really push the button on industrial rights and really turn the screw on it.

“We need to keep the momentum going up. It’s all calmed down a little bit after the vote and it seems to have gone quiet.

“We need to push this again and we need to start even exploring about the second vote if we’re not going to get any collective bargaining.”

Home Office figures showed officers leaving the service has hit a record high of 5,000 – or 3.4% of the workforce.

Steve said policing was “not worth it” if people were looking to join forces for the money – and this was having a knock-on effect.

He added: “It does have a massive impact on the quality of people we’re necessarily going to attract and retain if people don’t think their pay is matching inflation like it should do.

“What can be done to arrest the slide with that one? Well, pay us better.

“Let’s have a proper, long conversation about long-term repair to police pay and take it from there.”