SOUTH Yorkshire Police Federation will keep its \u201cfoot on the gas\u201d to push for consistent annual pay rises for officers, Chair Steve Kent has said.<\/p>\n
The Government has announced that all police officers will receive a \u00a31,900 pay rise in September, which amounts to 7% for new recruits but just 2% for Chief Inspectors, and way below the current inflation rate of 9.4%.<\/p>\n
The national Federation is continuing its #PayOurPolice campaign and Steve said he was keeping the pressure on locally to redress the pay shortfall.<\/p>\n
Steve said: \u201cThis pay deal isn\u2019t enough. It needed to be significantly bigger to redress the shortfall of police pay that we\u2019ve suffered over the past 10 years. But it is a small step in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need this to be followed up by consistent pay rises of a similar or higher nature in the coming years to actually start that pendulum coming back. We have officers who are suffering financially at the moment, and it\u2019s going to take consistent investment in police pay for that to be redressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to keep our foot on the gas with it, we need to carry on doing a lot of work behind the scenes, speaking to MPs and raising the plight of our officers.\u201d<\/p>\n