“Government must give officers a fair pay rise”
A 15 per cent pay increase has been requested for police officers over the next three years to help rescue them from a “financial cliff edge”.
A 5 per cent uplift in pay for police officers has been requested this year, followed by 5% in both 2020/21 and 2021/22 – by the Police Federation of England and Wales submission to the Police Remuneration Review Body.
Should a three-year settlement not be accepted, then a one-year deal of 6.2% has been requested, according to the submission made in partnership with the Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales.
Steve Kent, Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “It is pleasing to see the National federation recommend 5%, not just for this year for three years to come.
“I’m not of course naïve enough to think that the Government will just roll over and agree to this, however it is about time they started putting their words into actions, they keep saying how hard we work and what a difficult job it is, well they should prove it by giving officers a long overdue pay rise which will at least start to repair some of the damage and ease the hardships.”
He added “I am fed up of people saying officers should be happy as we are well paid. Are we? For the physical and psychological risks? For the pressures officers endure and the constant risk of negative and enhanced scrutiny and the subsequent risks of potentially being in court for doing our job? No I don’t think we are.
“We have suffered almost a decade of pay stagnation, it’s time for the Government to give officers a fair rise for what they do.”
On-call allowance would also see a boost under the proposals; officers of all ranks should receive £29.17 a day to bring the payments in line with those received by staff members. And both the London and SE Allowances should be uprated in line with inflation, the submission said.
The PFEW’s National Secretary, Alex Duncan, said: “Since austerity began, we have seen years of no pay increases or below inflation increases. The level of police pay has now eroded to a point where police officers are worse off than they should be.
“41% of our members are saying they have not got enough money to cover their essentials each month and 45% tell us that they worry about the state of their finances every day, or almost every day. These figures should be ringing massive alarm bells with ministers.”
The proposed three-year deal is just the “start on the journey” to return police officer pay to the level where it should be, the PFEW said.
Mr Duncan added: “Since 2010, there has not been a single pay award that has kept pace with inflation. Based on where we are, another real terms pay cut, or indeed a rise in the cost of living, is going to exacerbate that situation and result in more officers falling over a financial cliff-edge.”
Eight recommendations have been made to the PRRB ahead of the oral evidence sessions scheduled for 27 February – 6 March. To see the submission in full, go to: http://www.polfed.org/fedatwork/3859.aspx