Pros and Cons weighed up of police regional and role pay

ESSEX Police Federation is ‘watching with interest’ to see how plans to introduce more regional and role related pay structures for police officers pan out.

Chairman Steve Taylor says there are strengths and weaknesses to the potential proposals for Essex officers who face high house prices and an increased cost of living compared to others in England and Wales.

“There’s a general move away from incremental pay increase across the board and what the College of Policing in particular are pushing for is more duty related pay, more role related pay,” Steve said.

“There are strengths and weaknesses for our members to both elements of that argument, but by and large I agree that officers working more anti-social hours, dealing with more risk, it’s not unreasonable for them to be compensated more advantageously than colleagues who perhaps don’t work the anti-social hours, who perhaps don’t deal with that risk.

“It’s role related not performance related and is an incredibly divisive subject. We are watching with interest what’s happening with the Superintendents as they are trialling what this kind of targeted pay looks like,” he said.

A good place to start would be looking at the South East Allowance, he added, as a way of helping officers with living costs.

“If the organisation wanted a way of recognising the increased cost of living that our members have to put up with for the privilege of living and working in Essex, then the South East Allowance is one they should be focusing their attention.

“The role an officer performs in the organisation matters not if you are looking for a way to reduce the cost of living.”