Fed steps up wage demands amid public sector pay warnings
30 June 2023
West Midlands Police Federation has urged the Government to meet its 17 per cent pay claim and urgently reform the current police pay mechanism amid growing fears of a further public sector pay squeeze.
Branch chair Rich Cooke spoke out after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned he might have to take some unpopular decisions over pay as he tries to tackle inflation.
Rich said: “The Police Federation has long campaigned for better pay for its members and I think the time has now come for the Government to finally recognise the unique position police officers are in and bring us back into line with the rest of the public sector.
“Our members have routinely been offered the worst pay deals across all the emergency services for many years and even our 17 per cent pay claim would only partly redress the balance.
“The pay issue has been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis which has left some of our members struggling to make ends meet, shamefully, given the job they do for others
“And now there are outrageous suggestions that we should take another hit as part of the Government’s strategy to tackle inflation.
“Our members deserve better. They work incredibly hard in very challenging circumstances and keep our communities safe and secure.
“They should be treated with dignity and respect and that begins with giving us back a genuine ‘seat at the table’ to negotiate a fair pay offer that reflects the sacrifices they make and the risks they take.
“Maggie Thatcher gave us collective bargaining rights under the auspices of the Police Negotiating Board (PNB), as well as the Police Arbitration Tribunal (PAT): a system that colleagues in Scotland still enjoy to this day but was shamefully stripped away from forces in England and Wales by the coalition Government under David Cameron.”
The latest skirmish in the long-running pay row comes after the Police Federation national council passed a West Midlands branch motion to ballot members on whether the organisation should pursue industrial rights on their behalf.
Rich said: “Other frontline services are able to press their cases for fair pay through industrial action, but our members are forbidden by law to withdraw their labour and that is a major difference and weakness for police that’s been exploited by successive administrations.
“Enough is enough. We will shortly be balloting our members to see if they want us to pursue industrial rights on their behalf.
“The current system is rigged against us in a most pernicious way, and the results are a 300 per cent increase in voluntary resignations, skilled, experienced officers gone in the last decade!”
Mr Sunak said he would not shy away from making decisions “people may not like” as he vowed to halve inflation by the end of the year.
He said inflation was “higher than we’d like” and insisted it was important to “make the right and responsible decisions on things like public sector pay”.
The Prime Minister also refused to commit to accepting recommendations for public sector pay rises from independent pay review bodies as part of the Government’s economic strategy.
Pay review body recommendations are not legally binding on the Government and, although they are typically accepted, ministers can choose to reject or partially ignore the advice.
This would be a controversial move after the Government defended last year’s below-inflation pay rises by saying it had followed the bodies’ advice.
The Police Federation withdrew its support for the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) and branded it unfit for purpose after the 2021 pay freeze.
“We declared the PRRB unfit for purpose in 2021 and have been calling for the creation of a truly independent pay body ever since.
“It’s the height of hypocrisy that the Government, which always insisted it was bound by the PRRB recommendations in the past, has now decided it might reject its findings.”
