Federation raises concerns about holiday for officers

POLICE officers at Essex are finding it harder than ever to have their annual leave requests approved by their force, the Federation has said.

Mark Smith, chairman of Essex Police Federation, said: “Officers are putting in for annual leave time and time and time again are being refused.”

Holiday time is vital for retaining physical and mental well-being, Mr Smith added.

He told EssexFedFocus: “You need a week off or a fortnight off now and again. You need time off to recover, have time with their family and [officers] really are not getting annual leave.”

Essex Police Federation secretary Monty Montgomery also said that officers find it hard to recover from the six days on, four off shift pattern.

He said: “An awful lot of officers come home after six working days and they just collapse. They are totally burnt out for two of the rest days, which means they only have two of the rest days that are any use to them to have free time, down time with the family.”

Mr Smith said the force has the lowest abstraction rate of the region and yet the highest stick rate.

Earlier this month, press reports said that Essex officers took 12.75 days off sick during the year up to April – which represented a 50% increase in five years.

Essex Police Federation put the rise down to cuts, which are seeing officers work harder for longer and with less support.

Speaking last week Mr Smith added: “And we have got the lowest abstraction rate, because officers can’t get time. That is not going to improve and we are point that out to the force and telling them that officers can’t take time off.

“We can only keep on bringing it up with the force. We have pointed out that we have a 12% abstraction rate on a normal day. On a normal day 12% of the force can be off on annual leave. We think that is quite a low figure compared to some forces in the [south east] region.

“Most of the time Essex is sitting at a 6% abstraction rate because of mutual aid requests and things going on locally. That is next to nothing. Other forces in our region, a higher amount can be off at any one time.

“And Essex has got the highest sick rate in that region.”

Head of Essex Police’s Performance Improvement Unit, Supt Dean Chapple, said the Federation had made him aware that officers being unable to take holiday was “one possible cause behind sickness levels.”

However he said: “I have seen no evidence of this as yet.”

Supt Chapple added: “I will be looking at whether there are any common themes behind absences and I will take whatever actions are necessary to improve attendance.

“If it is identified that officers are routinely having annual leave refused then I will work with our resourcing department colleagues to understand the issues and, if adjustments are needed, then they will be made.

“However, while all employees of Essex Police are entitled to time off we must remember that we are an emergency service and we will ensure at all times that we have sufficient resources to deal with public demands.

“If police staff and officers are going sick because they cannot get annual leave then this is unacceptable and, if identified through the work of the unit, it will be addressed.

“However, if officers are exhausted because they are not being afforded time to recover between duties then we will look at those cases to ensure appropriate support is in place.”