Workload key concern for police, not pay - Minister
Nurses and teachers are calling for significant pay increases this year, but Police Minister Stuart Nash says no officers have asked him for a pay rise.
But National’s police spokesman Chris Bishop said these comments appeared to be a ‘‘strapped-for-cash’’ Government preparing police for a small, or non-existent, pay rise.
Police start on a salary of about $56,000, with their total first year remuneration just under $63,000 after allowances, superannuation, life insurance, and overtime.
Over the past few years, collective agreements have entitled police officers (constabulary and non-constabulary) to a 2 per cent pay increase each year.
Those agreements are coming up for renewal this year, and negotiations are due to begin in May.
Nurses, who have already begun a new round of negotiations, and teachers, who are about to begin negotiations, are asking for significant pay increases - the primary teachers union (NZEI) is planning a starting bid of 16 per cent.
However, there has been little talk of what police will be asking for, and what the Government is likely to hand over.
The Labour-NZ First coalition agreement promises to ‘‘strive towards’’ adding 1800 new police officers over three years - a promise Nash said he was confident he would be able to deliver on, despite the plan being labelled ‘‘ambitious’’ and a ‘‘new expense risk’’.
Nash said delivering on this coalition promise was his ‘‘number one priority’’.
He refused to talk about whether police would also be given salary increases, saying those negotiations were a matter for the police commissioner and his team.
But he did say, no cops had raised the issue with him during his travels around the different police districts during the past couple of months.
‘‘I can be brutally honest with you - and this is the truth - no-one has mentioned pay.
‘‘What they talk to me about is how stressed they are, how family violence is impacting on them, how the mental health system is under-funded, and the pressure on them as officers.
‘‘Not one person has mentioned they want a pay increase.
‘‘And I think the reason for that is they know there is a process they have to go through.’’
Nash said police did a ‘‘fantastic job under very trying circumstances’’, but refused to say whether he thought police were paid enough.
The issue of collective agreement negotiations and pay rises were raised in a recent Police Association newsletter and the briefing to the incoming minister at the end of last year.
Bishop said he found it hard to believe not a single officer had raised the issue of pay.
‘‘Collective agreement negotiations start in May so it appears Mr Nash is trying to prepare police to expect they won’t be getting much of a pay rise, if any,’’ Bishop said.
‘‘The Government is still yet to cost its policy of 1800 extra cops, let alone pay rises.
‘‘It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that the Government is strapped for cash.
‘‘Sadly it looks like it’s our hardworking cops who are going to lose out.’’
Comments made about police pay by Nash yesterday came after remarks he made in October when he said he would be reviewing police pay.
Asked then whether police should be paid more as an incentive to join the police force, Nash said ‘‘we need to have a look at that’’.
At the time he also refused to answer further questions about what that meant.
National has been critical of the coalition’s plan to add 1800 extra cops by 2020, saying the target is out of reach and expensive.
In Treasury’s half-year economic and fiscal update, the planned extra police was listed in the ‘‘statement of specific fiscal risks’’ as a ‘‘new expense risk’’.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said he had provided advice to the minister which put the cost of the extra officers at about $252 million.