I trust by now the majority will have had sight of the letter written on behalf of the Home Secretary to the Chancellor in which she details her devious plan to ‘accept’ the Police Arbitration Tribunals (PAT) pay award announced last Thursday (29th) which was leaked by the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday 5th December. In it she details her intention to implement the increase with effect from 1st December as opposed to 1st September. You will also I'm sure  be aware that she has this afternoon (Thursday 6th) confirmed these intentions to Parliament.

Click on number to view pages of her letter 1  2  3

She is being completely disingenuous in her attempts to dress it up that she has accepted the tribunals decision. Lets be absolutely clear. She hasn't and never intended to 'accept' it. She has significantly amended their judgement and the effect of her revision is to reduce the 2.5% increase recommended by the PAT to an even more derisory 1.9%.

It is clear from her actions today that she has absolutely no regard for any of us, the unique position we hold within or the contribution we make to our society. As such I submit that we can never again trust her judgement or have confidence in her ability to hold the high office she currently enjoys.

She has swept aside all the fine words spoken both by her, her predecessor, the current Prime Minister and his predecessor, made after the terrorist atrocities in London in 2005 and more recently the nationwide flooding disaster, about how much they value the contribution of police officers to our society. Her and their true colours are now revealed for all to see.

I am sad to say, a naturally cynical individual – I think too many years in the police service does that to a lot of people - but even I have to admit to feelings of surprise, astonishment, anger and immense disappointment when discovering, thanks to the Daily Telegraph, just how badly we are being betrayed by those we rely upon to ‘protect’ us.

The tone and content of her letter reveals the utter contempt and disregard she has for those that do ‘the Job’.  She pays absolutely no regard to the dangerous, often arduous, always difficult, job you all do, without the protection of any significant industrial rights. All we’ve ever asked for is a ‘fair’ pay rise each year, which reflects our inability, unlike most other workers, to voice and enforce any pay claim through industrial action.

Clearly this government have no goodwill as far as you are concerned & having had months to consider their options, this appears to be their choice.

Far from being treated fairly we have actually been subjected to an almost jaw dropping display of contempt for our position. We have been strung along throughout the protracted pay negotiations, by a Home Secretary who clearly never had any intention of negotiating in the true sense of the word. What she and the Treasury wanted when this all begun back in April was a settlement below 2% and surprise, surprise here we are eight months later with a proposed settlement below 2%. In the meantime we have had to endure the charade of  negotiations, apparently free from political interference. Poppycock! What is clear now, if it wasn’t before is that we were never going to get anything other than what she is now proposing.

All the many hours spent by the Staff side negotiating team to prepare what we believed was a well founded case. All the hours spent advocating our claim at PNB, not to mention all the hours spent by the official side doing likewise, were all it now appears an elaborate and expensive waste of time and energy.

We dutifully, but not happily, entered into binding arbitration, & the independent arbitration tribunal, after careful consideration of all the arguments, awarded us an increase, which we weren’t happy with but at least we could understand their justification of how they had arrived at that figure.

Now even that decision has been cast aside in favour of what this government wanted all along.

About this time last year the government called an old mate of theirs named Sir Clive Booth in for chat. They wanted him to do a couple of reports into how the Police pay machinery could be updated. You can imagine how the conversations might have gone “Oh! And by the way,” they said as he left the office “the answer is less than 2% all you’ve got to come up with is the question” 

In February he dutifully did just that. 2.325% in 2 staged payments. In effect .......... yeah you guessed it 1.9% and in essence that was the, supposedly ‘free from political interference’, Official sides stance throughout the negotiations. 

The PAT understandably took a pragmatic view and did what arbitrators do best and drew the line somewhere down the middle.  The legitimacy of their opinion has this morning been reinforced by the Scottish Justice Minister, who despite the clear steer to the contrary contained within Mrs Smith's letter, has done the honourable thing & implemented the full 2.5% increment back dated to 1st September for our colleagues north of the border.

But sadly for those of us in England and Wales, our Home Secretary has confirmed she is unwilling to follow his lead. She is determined to have her way!

Our inability to take industrial action far from being rewarded is actually being exploited by this government. This settlement is the lowest awarded to a public service this year and yet we are the only ones forbidden by law from taking industrial action. Our unique employment status has always previously been rewarded with a small premium payment within any settlement. Now our industrial impotence is being shamelessly abused. They believe they can award us as little as they like and appear to revel in the fact that there's nothing we can do about it. They know you are unable and suspect you are unwilling to seriously consider seeking the right to take industrial action. 

They’re right on the first count but I sense there just might be a significant change of mood regarding the second.

I have commented before in these pages about my colleague’s goodwill being used and abused by the Service. Hundreds of you regularly work well in excess of the 40 hours you are paid for. Your Goodwill. Your Choice.

We allow far too many senior managers to turn a blind eye, when you without complaint, breach the limits imposed by the Working Time Regulations, in order to make the job work. Your Goodwill. Your Choice.

Many of you agree to be subject to ‘On-Call’ arrangements, when you don’t have to, invariably to the detriment of your life outside the police service. Your Goodwill. Your Choice.

All of you make the job work, each and every day by not sticking strictly to the letter of policies, SOP’s and instructions, as to do so would mean that nothing ever gets done. Despite the fact that we all know that history has all too often proven that such magnanimous behaviour attracts little favour at discipline hearings! But we still do it! Your Goodwill. Your Choice.

To quote directly from the Home Secretary’s letter. “The tribunal’s index is close to the Booth index. We cannot be certain but there are indications that the same index would yield a lower figure next year”

You’re being under valued, used, abused, bullied, & ignored. Isn’t it time we did something to change that? Your Choice.