Another Constable

Having been away from work for a week, I return to a barrage of emails from our Police Federation representative regarding our current pay dispute. I wasn’t really aware that an agreement had been made, as I’m used to having a yearly pay dispute these days.

Anyway, our annual payrise was due on 1st September, but as usual the Government decided that they didn’t want to honour the existing long-standing pay review agreement, so it went to arbitration. The independent process decided upon 2.5% which was binding on both sides of the Police Negotiating Board (PNB - Staff side and official side). If I recall, staff side wanted about 3.9%, official side wanted about 1.9%.

But anyway, 2.5% was decided upon and like I said is binding on both sides, except that the Home Secretary has the final say. So in a very sneaky underhand move (and discovered via a leaked letter) The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith wrote to Chancellor Alastair Darling (who elected those two buffoons?) and asked him to authorise the change of backdating our pay award only to the 1st December rather than the 1st September as it should have been. This effectively gives us a pay rise of 1.9% this year, underneath the Governments own target of 2% (surprise surprise), but also under inflation which stands at 2.1% - this effectively means a pay cut to police officers.

Of course I’m no stranger to pay cuts. Long time readers will note I took about a 50% pay cut to join the police, believing that job satisfaction wins over money any day. That was fine, because it was my choice, and no doubt 99% of the other Bobbies I work with would think I was nuts. This time it’s enforced, on ALL of us. And it stinks.

We have no right to strike, and it seems we have no binding arbitration either. The media reports of 140,000 angry police officers can’t be far wrong as every single colleague of mine is ranting at the moment. They are all openly discussing going on strike too should the opportunity ever arise. This would be a very bad thing - for all of us.

I love my job, and can’t figure on doing anything else at the moment… but morale amongst my peers is lower than I have ever seen. People are leaving the job in droves looking for a better life. I must admit I’ve considered many times moving to a country where policing is how i imagined it to be (catching bad guys and putting them away) rather than how it actually is (most of my time on my arse doing the paperwork surrounding catching a slightly naughty guy rather than an actual bad guy).

The dangers we face are growing exponentially - there are guns pulled on bobbies many times a day and it’s ever increasing. Our numbers out on the streets are less than ever, so we’re bombarded with work (I’m talking about the 999 response role here that I’m familiar with). The demands placed upon us by ridiculous Government “number crunching” is driving us mad, and creating stress, destroying home life. The Government say that they recognise this and therefore want to give us working conditions that are more attuned with our roles in society. And yet they pull a stunt like this, knowing that we can do absolutely nothing about it.

It all makes me sick that I’ve been a staunch supporter of this Government for a number of years, through thick and thin. Even when my belief in Tony Blair waned, I patiently waited for the day when Gordon Brown would succeed him. Brown’s excellent record as Chancellor giving me hope that we would get an excellent Prime Minister. Unfortunately he’s appointed a bunch of halfwits to look after the rest of us, and so this is the final straw. No more votes from me, Mr Brown. I’ll be surprised if Brown doesn’t end up with one of the shortest premierships on record.

PS - Should any serving police officer wish to lobby their MP online (very quick and easy due to the proforma letter), please click here

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 11:15 am and is filed under Gripes, Police Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.