The Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation is talking to teams across the force about the pros and cons of industrial rights, ahead of a PFEW ballot next year.<\/p>\n
The Police Federation of England and Wales will be balloting the membership on pursuing industrial rights, it was announced at the Annual Conference in October. In 2021, PFEW withdrew from the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB), with National General Secretary Gemma Fox saying: \u201cWe do not have confidence in a system that is supposed to be impartial and independent, and recognising the position policing is in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike other public-sector workers, police officers are currently unable to strike or have any form of industrial rights, which think tank Social Market Foundation (SMF) says is likely to have negatively impacted police pay.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation was an early advocate of balloting members over industrial rights, says its Chair Steve Kent: \u201cWaving our flag, South Yorkshire Police Federation has been at the forefront of this since the very beginning. We were in the minority by coming out and saying, \u2018We need to do this\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re expecting this ballot to be in the spring. There is a national working group that I\u2019m proud to be part of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve continued: \u201cI have asked pretty much all the Inspectors in the force to give me some dates to come and speak to their teams. I\u2019ve done a high number of talks already, close to 30, going out to speak to officers, and I will keep doing that as a rolling, refreshing thing over the coming months.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to continue to appeal to other Federation Chairs across the country to go out and speak to cops, because when you explain the pros and cons they get it, and they get the need to involve themselves in this, whether it\u2019s voting yes or no.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you go into the room they say, \u2018It doesn\u2019t make any difference to us, we\u2019re not going to get the right to strike anyway\u2019. Well no, it\u2019s not about that. There\u2019s a far bigger picture to this and when you\u2019ve finished explaining to them, they\u2019re engaged with it.\u201d<\/p>\n