Home Secretary steals police oficers pay rise

[under par]

Vested interest announced I am a serving officer.


Police have had a pay agreement running for many years.

The agreement in place was that the pay of officers would be uprated according to one of the indexes the government produce in May
the pay rise becomes effective each year from 1st September.

In the last 10 to 15 years we have had an average pay rise of 2.5% to 3%.

The agreed pay formula or mechanism was put in place some years ago, respecting the fact that police officers are a special case as far as public sector workers are concerned. There are restrictions placed upon the lives of officers that are not there for any other public sector employee (except armed services).

Police are not allowed to belong to unions, nor are they allowed to take strike action or industrial action.
There are also restrictions on secondary employment and housing.

This year the labour government decided they wanted to change things.

They wanted a different pay arrangement. Police negotiated with the government side and no agreement could be reached.

Both sides went to arbitration.

This arbitration is binding to both sides.

The arbitration decision was to increase the police pay by 2.5% backdated to 1st sept 2007.

Our Home Secretary now has decided not to backdate the pay award to 1st of September.

She has gone against the binding arbitration and is only going to backdate to 1st December.

This will take the 2.5% pay award down to 1.9%.

Now I am not arguing here that I deserve more money than anyone else.

Had the arbitration panel said we should not get any pay award then that would have been it.
Had it said we get a 1.9% pay award then that would have been it.

But the arbitration panel with all the evidence before it, gave a pay award of 2.5% backdated to 1st Sept.

It is the principle that is important in my opinion.

The Home Secretary has now taken it upon herself to override all the negotiation and arbitration.

Outrageous behaviour.

Do you think this is fair.????

[bigdjiver]

No

[stairman]

would this be an indecation of how this goverment views contracts

[Barry Shnikov]

What you should do is all go on strike.

Then you can all arrest each other for breaking the law.

Then the police cells will be full of policemen on remand.

There will be no police to process the perpetrators, nor to enforce the law against the usual villains.

The CPS will have thousands of arrests to deal with; this will paralyse it.

The Courts will be clogged processing PC after WPC after DC after DS after DI and so forth.

And finally the prisons will be full to overflowing and the Home Secretary will have to set aside all the new-build prisons to house the police.

[under par]

And finally the prisons will be full to overflowing and the Home Secretary will have to set aside all the new-build prisons to house the police.

Can I have a room with a sea view please....

[Keefy]

Can I have a room with a sea view please....

I thought they had sold the ship?

[Mary]

Does this mean she is breaking the law? And can you arrest her?

M

[under par]

Does this mean she is breaking the law? And can you arrest her?

M

Breaking the law I'm not sure... taking the p*ss yes definitely

[David Bailey]

Breaking the law I'm not sure...

Apparently they're seeking a judicial review, so possibly she is...

I don't have a view on the amount itself - at the moment, I've had a large pay cut over the past couple of years - but I agree that this sneaky underhand way of getting around the imposed and agreed rise is pretty shoddy. Plus, it's pretty stupid - what, did she think the police wouldn't notice, or something?

Labour seems to be getting into a habit of trying to bend the rules to suit themselves, trying to find as many loopholes as possible to exploit. Not really the example they should be setting.

[ducasi]

In Scotland, our government has decided to give police the pay rise immediately, fully back-dated. There hasn't been much reporting of this in the UK press.

[David Bailey]

In Scotland, our government has decided to give police the pay rise immediately, fully back-dated. There hasn't been much reporting of this in the UK press.

It's implied - most reports I hear have stated it's for England, Wales and NI. But yes, it's not been stated explicitly much.

[Barry Shnikov]

In Scotland, our government has decided to give police the pay rise immediately, fully back-dated. There hasn't been much reporting of this in the UK press.

Well, naturally. You are using our taxes to pay it.

[under par]

Apparently they're seeking a judicial review, so possibly she is...

I don't have a view on the amount itself - at the moment, I've had a large pay cut over the past couple of years - but I agree that this sneaky underhand way of getting around the imposed and agreed rise is pretty shoddy. Plus, it's pretty stupid - what, did she think the police wouldn't notice, or something?

Labour seems to be getting into a habit of trying to bend the rules to suit themselves, trying to find as many loopholes as possible to exploit. Not really the example they should be setting.

IT IS DEFINITELY NOT THE AMOUNT OF THE PAY AWARD.

It is the going against the binding part of the arbitration that really gets me riled.

The police have to accept the fact that the government want to reduce costs and in doing so the government have attacked the existing pay mechanism but when the government couldn't get their way they went with the police to an arbitration panel whose decision is binding to both sides.

The police with no right to any industrial action argued their case at arbitration and taking into account the special nature of police officers pay the arbitration panel came to its conclusion.

What right does Jaqui Smith have to override this?

The police side are rightly angry.

It is in fact only about £200 per officer that is being withheld.

I hope there is a judicial review and the government are told to obey the law.

I do not want the police to have the right to strike or take industrial action.. I do not like police being politicised due to incompetent ministers.

Let the right pay mechanism be set up to enable police officers be just that police officers .......

No one wants police getting involved in annual pay disputes so set up a lawfully binding mechanism and stick to it.

Bloody interfering Labour


Well done Scotland for settling straight away.

[DianaS]

I exspect they over spent in other areas - Iraq perhaps?

[David Bailey]

I exspect they over spent in other areas - Iraq perhaps?

I suspect it's just a "It seemed like a Cunning Plan at the time" cockup, and now Smith doesn't want to back down because she'll look "weak" and lose face.

[ducasi]

Well, naturally. You are using our taxes to pay it.

You say that like we are spending your money!

It's our taxes too – and it's up to the Scottish Government to decide how to spend its portion of it. By spending extra on the police in Scotland, it's not going to cost anybody in England an extra penny in tax.

I guess England prefers to spend its money on things like olympic games and expensive railways for the benefit of mostly just London.

[dave the scaffolder]

Aye aye being self employed i have to submit all sort of returns to the government on a regular basis.

If i am late i get fined almost instantly.

Last year i had a VAT inspection and the Vat man withheld 4K that i was due in construction vouchers, about a week ago i received a letter saying that the Vat man saying they owed me £2311 out of the 4k from my vouchers.
So they have owed me £2311 for 13 months. Thirteen months when i asked for interest i received £65.

Now if i am a week late with my returns i get instantly fined.

This government is dishonest and a bunch of crooks.

This is of course my opinion and mine alone.

Who voted for these morons, because i did not.

XXX XXX DTS Dave

[under par]

I loved the way our Prime Minister Gordon Brown supported his Home Secretary by insinuating that paying the police award in full would adversely affect the national economy. What a load of bunkum!
Shoring up a failing bank with 20 billion might do !!!
I wonder if the MPs pay rise this year will be given up for benefit of the national economy?

[straycat]

Well - in most sizeable organisations, there are going to be a number of bureaucrats / middle management types who seem to serve no other purpose than to spend time justifying their own existence, and getting in the way of anyone trying to actually accomplish anything useful... and local government / governmental bodies seem to be a key breeding ground for these types. My father used to have a saying: 'Mediocrity protects itself' - and he was talking about these people. Your pay has probably been allocated to them

Sometimes I wonder if Douglas Adams had it right. Perhaps a Golgafrinchan-style solution is the only way....

[under par]

Remember the police are not complaining about the money per se.

It is the dishonesty of entering binding arbitration and then not binding to the decision.

Had the binding arbitration said police have 1% we would have had 1%. The police would have had to accept the decision like every other year.

But to put your trust into the arbitration panel and then to have a politician withdraw some of it is a disgrace.