Bonuses for hard to fill roles will create a ‘them and us’ culture

ESSEX Police Federation says new plans to offer £4,000 bonus payments to help recruit to hard to fill roles could led to a ‘them and us’ culture.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid rubber stamped the plan first formulated when The Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) said in its annual report that chief officers should be allowed to make extra payments to help ease gaps in police roles “urgently”.

It means bonus payments of up to £4,000 for federated ranks and superintendents who ‘face exceptional challenges’, can be given.
“It feels like a rehash of special priority payments and for me is a step away from a regimental increase in pay simply because of years of service. That’s what they’re trying to move away from.

“So, your pay doesn’t necessarily go up just because you’ve got more time on the job.

“They want to target it. But, of course, the fear is that it’s a race to the bottom and it’s divisive and we’re going to pay dog handlers and custody Sergeants but we’re not going to pay response Sergeants and firearms officers, for example, which could arguably lead to that them and us culture.”

Steve thinks the plan could be the first step on the road to privatising elements of the police service.

“Arguably, if you wanted to privatise your police service this is a really good way of separating our ranks, of separating our roles. ‘Let’s privatise custody, let’s give it to G4S. Let’s privatise dog handlers’. None of us want to see that.

“That would be absolutely terrible. Is this the first step down that journey? I could be being a bit cynical here but I’ll hold my head up to that challenge.”