THE Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation has hit out at requests from Chief Officers to scrap a number of police officer Bank Holidays and the overnight allowance.<\/p>\n
Neil Bowles (pictured) said: \u201cIf you\u2019re going to have people working Bank Holidays or away from home they need to be recompensed for it at the appropriate rate.\u201d He also supported the national Federation in their request for a 2.8% police officer pay rise.<\/p>\n
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In their submissions to the Police Pay Review Body (PRRB), as well as calling for a 1% pay rise, chief officers in England and Wales have recommended scrapping the away from home allowance and all Bank Holidays \u2013 apart from Christmas Day and New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cChief Officers can\u2019t manage their staff properly and they never have been able to,\u201d said Mr Bowles.\u00a0 \u201cChristmas comes as a surprise every year. Guy Fawkes night\u2026 lo and behold it\u2019s on the fifth of November, what are we going to do about it? Just get your staff planned appropriately.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chiefs said apparently that bank holidays are a third of our overtime budget, well so what? So what if it\u2019s a third?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to work 365 days a year, and yet other working professions are compensated for working weekends and upgraded for Bank Holidays. So why pick on police officers that they shouldn\u2019t be recompensed for working on bank holidays? Some are busy and some are quiet, allocate resources accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for looking to cancel the overnight allowance \u2013 currently \u00a350 or \u00a380 depending on conditions \u2013 Mr Bowles added: \u201cIt\u2019s cost cutting. No officer joined South Yorkshire Police with the expectation to be posted in Cardiff, policing some sort of conference. So if people are away from home then they should be recompensed by an allowance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking about the National Federation\u2019s request for a 2.8% police officer pay rise in 2016, Mr Bowles said: \u201cWe certainly support that. The evidence goes to prove that we need more than 1% just to even claw back some of the amount of money we\u2019ve lost in real terms in the last six years. The evidence is there.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I certainly don\u2019t believe that it should be targeted, it\u2019s across the board. We\u2019re all Constables and we can all be deployed at any sort of Constable role at the whim of the Chief Constable, so targeting pay rises is just a divisive idea like Special Priority Payments and Competency related Threshold Payments were.\u201d<\/p>\n
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