2.5% Pay Rise Won’t Help Officer Retention

THE 2.5% pay rise that police officers saw in their pay packets at the beginning of September still “doesn’t cut the mustard” and will do little to improve retention, Essex Police Federation has said.

Chairman Steve Taylor said officers won’t be “breaking out the bunting” following the increase.

He said: “This is no cause for celebration. Officers know they deserve a pay rise, because inflation has gone up, but it doesn’t make up for the approximately 18% that the service has fallen behind since the start of austerity. So, we’re not doing cartwheels about it, but it is a step in the right direction.

The service has fallen a long way behind other professions, and Steve said officers are still being lured away by better pay elsewhere – driving trains in London, for example.

He added: “Will the pay rise help retention? Not a jot. In my view, police officers don’t do it for the money, but until you give the police service parity with some of the other common services, then 2.5% doesn’t cut the mustard.

“People’s biggest issues is the fairness of it all. The lack of or negative pay rises. They’re not idiots. Financially they understand what it means. Just because we’re a little better worse-off, we’re still worse-off. So 2.5% is a paltry figure.

“It’s something we’d rather have than not have, but it’s so small that police officers’ view is that it’s not going to make one jot of difference to retention. If people are going and finance is the reason for it, then 2.5% isn’t going to turn their heads and keep them.”

Steve also called for better South East allowance payments, after plans for an increase were shelved. He said: “Decisions have been put on the back-burner, tied up in the Police Chief Council’s review on pay and remuneration. So our members are not even got that bit to reflect that extra cost of living we face here in Essex.”