Federation to campaign for industrial rights

10 July 2024

Police officers deserve a fair and independent pay review process that ensures they are properly paid for the pressures and dangers of their role, according to the Police Federation’s co-leads for Wales.

Leigh Godfrey and Zac Mader were commenting on the results of a poll carried out by the Police Federation of England and Wales asking members nationwide if they wanted the staff association to pursue collective bargaining and binding arbitration as part of a reformed pay review process.

The poll results showed that 97.7 per cent of those who took part in the poll voted in favour of the Federation campaigning for these industrial rights as part of the Government’s police pay review mechanism.

“This poll leaves us in no doubt whatsoever as to our members’ stance on this issue,” said Leigh, “I just hope that the Government also takes these results seriously and listens to what police officers are saying. They are frustrated, and they are demoralised, as evidenced by the latest Police Federation pay and morale survey, and part of the reason they feel like that is because of the way in which they have been treated by the Government.

“Police officers accept when they sign up to the service that they are going to have restrictions placed on them; restrictions that are not put on other workers. These restrictions include not being able to join a union or enjoy industrial rights.

Pay review process

“However, there has in the past been an unwritten contract between policing and the government of the day which means politicians, understanding officers’ weaker position through not having the industrial rights afforded to others, would treat officers fairly in terms of pay review processes.

“But it really does appear the Government has not upheld its part of the deal. The Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) is not independent, nor is it fair. Government sets its remit, can ignore its recommendations and there is no right to arbitration, as was the case under the previous Police Negotiating Board which was replaced in 2014. The Federation has withdrawn from the PRRB process and we now need to see it overhauled.”

The Police Federation poll on industrial rights ran from 3 to 21 June this year and attracted 50,103 responses.

The Federation’s National Council and National Board will now start to create the campaign for the introduction of a fair and binding pay mechanism.

Zac explained: “We will be part of this work. But we will also be seeking to speak to all our Welsh MPs so that we can put across members’ views, explain the issues affecting police officers and try to encourage them to get behind policing and police officers by supporting our campaign.”

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