Pay and morale figures give stark warning

THE  Police Federation’s pay and morale survey makes stark reading about how officers in Essex feel about the job.

This year’s survey showed that in Essex, 93% of officers felt morale is currently low in the force and 88% say they don’t feel fairly paid for stresses and strains of job.

Seven in 10 officers said they are worse off financially than five years ago; 59% say their workload is going up and 72% would not recommend joining the force to others.

But while those figures make for stark reading, Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor says critics of the survey can claim it is not a true reflection of officers’ opinions.

He explained: “I think it’s important to say the sample size in that Pay and Morale survey, while it improved on last years’ 11%, I think it got up to about 18% for Essex officers. That’s still 1 in 5, so there’s a double edged sword in that.

“We have to listen to the messages that this survey’s telling us, but it’s all too easy for those messages to be dismissed by decision makers when the sample size is so low. And whilst I respect that we do sometimes get a bit of survey-itis, the value of adding your voice to these surveys could have highlighted even more what hat survey’s telling us.

“Because it’s telling us that we don’t feel fairly treated, it’s telling us that we don’t feel fairly compensated for a hard day’s work. But at the same time, not enough of us have taken the time to complete the survey, and so it’s all too easy to be dismissed, which is disappointing.

“So what are we doing about it in Essex? We’ve already had a number of meeting with the deputy Chief Constable where we’ve gone through our concerns for the survey. We’re particularly worried about the increase on last year’s figures in the number of officers that don’t feel they’re treated fairly. And fairness is something that’s in the gift of the organisation.”