Police pay needs full review, says federation
THE police pay mechanism needs to have a wholesale review, according to Hampshire Police Federation.
Chair Zoë Wakefield was speaking after new police federation chair Steve Hartshorn said police pay was his top priority.
A campaign was launched calling for an alternative to the current unjust pay review mechanism, which Hampshire Police Federation backs fully.
Zoë said: ‘I think there absolutely needs to be a wholesale review of our pay.
‘And to look at us in comparison to other careers. I know you can’t really compare anything to the police, but we’ve now got officers with 15, 20, 25 years’ service who are leaving to go to better-paid jobs in the private sector.
‘Because we’ve had so little in pay rises over the past 10-12 years, people look at their payslips and think, "It’s not really changed in the last 10 years, it’s probably not really going to change in the next 10 years unless I get promoted or leave to get a better-paid job elsewhere”. And so that’s what a lot of people are doing.’
She added: ‘We’ve also got a lot of forces that are struggling to recruit because the starting pay is so low, so the whole thing needs a review, as well as then having a proper independent mechanism for reviewing our pay each year – something that is not interfered with by the government.
‘We need officers to come forward and explain how difficult it is for them.’