Officers encouraged to know their rights

3 September 2018

Police officers are being reminded to claim every penny they are entitled to as their “hard work and dedication is not being recognised by the Government in their pay packets.”

As the new police officer pay scales come into effect from today (1 September), the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is encouraging officers to know their legal working rights and of the importance of Police Regulations.

A series of messages and "rights" reminders will be shared over the coming weeks and months as part of an ongoing campaign across all platforms.

John Apter, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said police officers’ “good will has been taken for granted for too long and there are consequences to this and the Government need to wake up and realise it is not acceptable”.

He said: “Police Regulations and terms and conditions are all too often cherry picked. Over the coming months I will be campaigning for officers’ rights and educating members on the importance of claiming what they are entitled to from leave to rest days, overtime allowance and taking adequate rest breaks.

“Our officers go above and beyond the call of duty to protect the public and it’s imperative they claim their basic entitlements, especially when their hard work and indisputable dedication is not being recognised in their pay packets.”

The Government announced in July that all police officers would get a 2% pay rise from 1 September. However, because last year’s pay award consisted of a 1% rise and a 1% one-off bonus, that means that officers are effectively only getting another 1% in their pay packets.

By doing this they ignored the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) recommendations for the second year running. The PRRB recommended officers received 3%.

John added: “It’s no wonder officers are feeling undervalued and unappreciated when the Government ignores the recommendation of its own independent pay review body.

“We have played ball submitting extensive evidence to the pay review body with it being disregarded with no justification yet from the Government.

“Police pay has declined relative to inflation by 18% since 2009/10 which makes no sense when you take into account the increasing demand on the service.

“It is unacceptable to see officers struggling to meet ends meet whilst working all the hours under the sun to keep the public safe because there simply aren’t enough officers to meet the increasing demand.”

John concluded: “We will continue to fight for members’ best interests using the processes we have in place, but we will also regularly review the merits of direct involvement in those forums if those routes are not achieving what we want.”