PAY AWARD 2008-2010
16-10-2008
POLICE PAY AWARD 2008
On 15 October 2008, the Staff Side of the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) agreed to accept an offer from the Official Side of a fixed 3 year deal. As part of the negotiation, the Home Secretary agreed to shelve proposals to replace PNB with a Pay Review Body (PRB) during the term of this government.
The accepted deal means that we will receive awards as follows in the next three years, all payable on 01 September.
2008 – increase of 2.65%
2009 – increase of 2.6%
2010 – increase of 2.55%
In the event of significant changes to the economic climate in the UK and the Police Service showing demonstrable problems in terms of recruitment and retention, a re-opening clause exists. In such a case the matter would be returned to a Police Appeal Tribunal (PAT) as a ‘failure to agree’ would be registered.
As a result of the foregoing, the PAT has been advised that an agreement has been reached and this year’s award will no longer be considered by them on 21 October 2008. This award will of course require ratification by Scottish Ministers as normal.
I imagine that many officers will remain dissatisfied with this award and I for one had hoped to achieve something significantly better. You should be aware that the Scottish reps at Staff Side of PNB having sought opinion from local reps voted against accepting this deal however our colleagues from the other home countries were all in favour of acceptance. Perhaps we should recall what happened to them last year and that may have focussed their minds accordingly.
I understand all of the arguments regarding the fact that inflation is sitting at well over 5% at the present time and in real terms what we have accepted is a pay cut. However, I think we have to remain realistic and look at the bigger picture. Without the right to take industrial action were we ever going to achieve anything better, particularly in the current financial climate?
It is totally unrealistic to think that we were ever going to achieve a rate of inflation type increase to our salary. We have known this for some time and that is why we are continuing to pursue matters such as a shift allowance, on call allowance and recompense for dependant care whilst at court. All of these matters are currently sitting at PNB which has done little work in the past 3 years other than consider police pay. Perhaps, with pay sorted out for a while, we may see some real progress on these matters for the benefit of rank and file police officers.
In the past few weeks either the UK or Scottish Governments have agreed to pay increased police pension commutation factors and they have also agreed to pay towards the increased costs of what is referred to as the Edmund Davies bulge. With so many officers eligible to retire at this time the pressure on police forces/joint police boards has been removed meaning that operational police budgets will not be affected to the same extent.
The money to pay for these matters has to come from somewhere. In addition the UK Government has bailed out banks and many local authorities are in a real mess as some of the investments have been severely hit due to them being located in Icelandic banks.
In summary, yes we are disappointed that we have had to tie into a 3 year deal, but in the current climate, the deal accepted is as good as realistically possible. We are not being made redundant, we retain a final salary pension scheme and in the eyes of the public who we serve, we have not been greedy in any fashion.
Hopefully we can now move on and deal with some matters at PNB which are of real importance. We did not want a PRB and whilst the more cynical amongst us may feel that the government have used that as a smoke screen to get this agreement, the PNB has worked for several decades and we want and need it to work again.
Malcolm Gibbs
JBB Secretary
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16-10-2008
POLICE PAY AWARD 2008
On 15 October 2008, the Staff Side of the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) agreed to accept an offer from the Official Side of a fixed 3 year deal. As part of the negotiation, the Home Secretary agreed to shelve proposals to replace PNB with a Pay Review Body (PRB) during the term of this government.
The accepted deal means that we will receive awards as follows in the next three years, all payable on 01 September.
2008 – increase of 2.65%
2009 – increase of 2.6%
2010 – increase of 2.55%
In the event of significant changes to the economic climate in the UK and the Police Service showing demonstrable problems in terms of recruitment and retention, a re-opening clause exists. In such a case the matter would be returned to a Police Appeal Tribunal (PAT) as a ‘failure to agree’ would be registered.
As a result of the foregoing, the PAT has been advised that an agreement has been reached and this year’s award will no longer be considered by them on 21 October 2008. This award will of course require ratification by Scottish Ministers as normal.
I imagine that many officers will remain dissatisfied with this award and I for one had hoped to achieve something significantly better. You should be aware that the Scottish reps at Staff Side of PNB having sought opinion from local reps voted against accepting this deal however our colleagues from the other home countries were all in favour of acceptance. Perhaps we should recall what happened to them last year and that may have focussed their minds accordingly.
I understand all of the arguments regarding the fact that inflation is sitting at well over 5% at the present time and in real terms what we have accepted is a pay cut. However, I think we have to remain realistic and look at the bigger picture. Without the right to take industrial action were we ever going to achieve anything better, particularly in the current financial climate?
It is totally unrealistic to think that we were ever going to achieve a rate of inflation type increase to our salary. We have known this for some time and that is why we are continuing to pursue matters such as a shift allowance, on call allowance and recompense for dependant care whilst at court. All of these matters are currently sitting at PNB which has done little work in the past 3 years other than consider police pay. Perhaps, with pay sorted out for a while, we may see some real progress on these matters for the benefit of rank and file police officers.
In the past few weeks either the UK or Scottish Governments have agreed to pay increased police pension commutation factors and they have also agreed to pay towards the increased costs of what is referred to as the Edmund Davies bulge. With so many officers eligible to retire at this time the pressure on police forces/joint police boards has been removed meaning that operational police budgets will not be affected to the same extent.
The money to pay for these matters has to come from somewhere. In addition the UK Government has bailed out banks and many local authorities are in a real mess as some of the investments have been severely hit due to them being located in Icelandic banks.
In summary, yes we are disappointed that we have had to tie into a 3 year deal, but in the current climate, the deal accepted is as good as realistically possible. We are not being made redundant, we retain a final salary pension scheme and in the eyes of the public who we serve, we have not been greedy in any fashion.
Hopefully we can now move on and deal with some matters at PNB which are of real importance. We did not want a PRB and whilst the more cynical amongst us may feel that the government have used that as a smoke screen to get this agreement, the PNB has worked for several decades and we want and need it to work again.
Malcolm Gibbs
JBB Secretary
Back to News Archive page