The Government’s decision to delay making an announcement on officers’ pay award until September is unacceptable, according to the chairman of Bedfordshire Police Federation.
Jim Mallen spoke out when it was announced yesterday that officers will have to wait until Parliament returns after its seven-week summer recess to find out if they are to get a pay increase.
“This is so frustrating for officers who are already feeling the strain both at work due to the Government’s cuts programme and financially due to years of pay freezes and minimal increases which have actually seen their salaries reduced in real terms,” says Jim.
“After the General Election, a number of MPs called for the current one per cent cap on public sector pay rises to be lifted although the Chancellor of the Exchequer does not seem to agree with them and has reportedly said that public sector workers are already over paid.
“This delay simply compounds officers’ feeling of frustration and does not make them feel valued or appreciated.”
The delay comes despite the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) meeting an earlier than normal deadline for submitting evidence to the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB), which determines police pay, in December 2016. The PRRB also met the deadline for submitting its recommendations to the Government.
Steve White, chair of PFEW, has expressed his concerns.
He explains: “One of the key elements of creating the PRRB was to set out a process that allows any pay award to be implemented from September. We worked tirelessly to submit our evidence in a timely fashion and the least the Government can do is honour its side of the process.”
Addressing officers and the Home Secretary at the Police Federation’s annual national conference in May, the national chair also made it clear that the Government must remove the shackles from the PRRB and allow it to be the independent body it is supposed to be. He has repeated this message.
“Restricting the ability to implement recommendations based on solid, detailed evidence, hardly embraces an independent approach. The pay body process should be consistent across the public sector and Government alike,” says Steve.
Any pay increase sanctioned by the Government will be back-dated to September but it could leave officers out of pocket for months since forces need time to implement any changes.
Government starts its summer recess today and returns on 5 September.
