Industrial Rights Ballot Still Important Despite 7% Pay Rise

Police officers should still be balloted on industrial rights despite the new pay deal, Hampshire Police Federation has said.

The Chair of Hampshire Police Federation, Zoë Wakefield, said that the national Federation should “absolutely” push ahead with balloting members on industrial rights, as many problems remained in policing.

She said: “One of the main points is that we don’t have a proper mechanism for negotiating our pay and conditions, and that hasn’t changed. We are still behind the curve with that. Research by the Social Market Foundation found that, in real terms, we are 17% worse off than we were in the year 2000.

“Until our pay gets back to where it should be, and we’ve got that proper mechanism with the Government for negotiating our pay and conditions, we have to continue with this industrial rights conversation. It’s what a lot of our members are asking for, and we’ve got to at least explore it.”

Zoë added that there needed to be education for police officers around what industrial rights might look like.

She said: “People need to know what they’re going to be voting for, and what the risks are if we become employees and no longer crown servants. People need to know what they could potentially lose and what are the potential gains. For example, a lot of people think we would never get the right to strike, but we could perhaps get other rights that are going to make things better for our members.”