Pay Rise Is ‘Kick In The Teeth’ For Police

SOUTH Yorkshire Police Officers will be getting a 2.5% rise in their September pay packets – but will be worse off than other emergency service workers.

The public sector pay boost announced by the Home Office in July will not be backdated to April for the police, as it is for other public posts.

And while the long overdue increase will provide a level of welcome relief for struggling officers, not getting parity with their public sector colleagues is a another “kick in the teeth” for them, according to South Yorkshire Police Federation.

Chairman Steve Kent said: “The pay rise is welcome although I would have liked to have seen a bigger pay rise due to the shocking recent real-time reduction in pay officers have endured over the past decade.

“But 2.5% is a good starting point and it’s encouraging going forward. But the police pay finance review is 1 September, which is when we’re all getting our pay rise, whereas other public sectors have been promised a backdate to 1 April.

“Officers feel aggrieved that we have different pay scales and yet again other emergency services and the public sector are going to get another four months of pay and we’re not – and I can see why they are aggrieved. It’s a kick in the teeth.”

Steve wants to see annual pay rises of at least 3% in the future to help reverse a decade of under-funding and under payment of officers.

He added: “2.5% is a step in the right direction but for me, it still needs to be higher. It needs to be higher in the years ahead.

“I would like to see at least 3% year on year. It’ll take probably a decade to get back to the pay where they should be, but it’s a starting point, and I welcome the fact that the Government actually honoured the PRRB [Police Remuneration Review Board’s pay recommendation].”