Officers must take rest days and their annual leave allocation \u2018now more than ever\u2019 according to South Yorkshire Police Federation.<\/p>\n
More than 480,000 rest days are owed to officers across England and Wales concerning new figures have shown, meaning officers are just not getting the breaks from work they so desperately need.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an even bigger issue since the pandemic struck which has seen officers\u2019 typical rest day and leave patterns disrupted by differing demands and challenges.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said he understood that officers don\u2019t want to let their colleagues down when times are hard, but presenteeism had to be weighed up against the problems not getting adequate rest can bring.<\/p>\n
If they can take annual leave and rest days then they should he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of presenteeism in the force; officers don\u2019t get time or don\u2019t feel they can take their leave because they don\u2019t want to let their colleagues down or they don\u2019t want to leave their workloads to have a break.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s vital that they should feel that they can take a break because if they don\u2019t then, as we know, things can boil over and people can get burned out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a worrying figure because you\u2019ve got so many officers who have got all these rest days in the bank, but they need them scheduled in so they can get some time away from the job to recharge.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially with COVID people probably haven\u2019t been able to take their holidays that they would normally want to do. It\u2019s now more than ever we want to see officers trying to get that leave penned in so at least they can have something to look forward to and release the pressure a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
If rest days aren\u2019t taken they could be lost forever and it can create a planning problem for the force, Steve said, although he knows taking time off can leave some departments under pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe force does not like people accruing their rest days, and it makes that clear. It makes it clear to officers within the regulations about how long they can keep their rest days before they potentially lose them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s fine, and I would always agree that officers shouldn\u2019t stack their rest days up, and they should be using them instead, but the problem we have is staffing in some departments is so short they\u2019re unable to take their leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s setting officers up to fail. We have mentioned this to the force, and they do take quite a pragmatic approach when it comes to extending the period you can take your cancelled leave days.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not as strict as the regulations which is good, but it doesn\u2019t solve the problem. It\u2019s just papering over the cracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need the resilience in the force staffing-wise to give people the ability to say, \u2018You know what? I\u2019m going to take that week off in October because I can take it\u2019. At the minute it\u2019s tough to take leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
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