Pursuing Prospect of Industrial Rights Remains While Cops Receive Poor Pay Rises

THE prospect of police officers pursuing industrial rights will remain whilst the country’s cops continue to receive poor pay rises, Hampshire Police Federation has said.

The national Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is pushing for a 17% pay increase for police officers this year.

Unlike other public-sector workers, police officers are not allowed to strike, and PFEW says this is likely to affect their bargaining power.

Zoe Wakefield, Chair of Hampshire Police Federation, said: “Policing is a unique role where do not have the right to strike and therefore have no bargaining power with the Government. They take advantage of this by not paying us what we deserve.

“I’ve written to all our MPs in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to seek their support for a 17% pay rise and I think – if we do not get this amount this year – we then need to consider what our members want.

“Most of them are saying that they want to have a ballot for industrial rights. If that’s what our members want, that’s what we should do.

“I think we cannot do nothing. That’s not an option and we cannot wait for… I don’t think we should wait for what we think is going to be the inevitable decision, that it’s not going to be anywhere near 17%.”

Social Market Foundation research – published in March – found that police pay fared badly when compared to other protective services and public sector workers, whose pay rose by 1% and 14% respectively over the same period.

The report also claimed that the decline in police pay is likely to be linked the restrictions on their right to strike.

And it added that if the current police pay trend continued, officer remuneration would drop by a further 4% in real terms by 2027.

National Police Federation Chair Steve Hartshorn was asked on BBC TV what happens if police officers do not get the 17% figure and whether officers would seek the right to strike…?

He said: “There is a potential that we seek a ballot of our members to see what they want to do. We haven’t have the right to strike since 1919 with the promise we would be looked after… that promise has been taken away… we need to be looked after better by the Government.”