{"id":153456,"date":"2020-11-30T14:45:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T14:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/?p=153456"},"modified":"2020-11-30T14:45:24","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T14:45:24","slug":"public-sector-pay-freeze-a-slap-in-the-face-for-hardworking-officers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/?p=153456","title":{"rendered":"Public sector pay freeze a “slap in the face” for hardworking officers"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE public sector pay freeze has come as a \u201cslap in the face\u201d to the hardworking police officers who have been keeping people safe during the Covid-19 pandemic, Essex Police Federation has said.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Chair Laura Heggie was speaking after Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that doctors and nurses would get a pay rise in 2021, while police officers would miss out. “I cannot justify an across the board pay increase for all public sector workers,” he told the House of Commons.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Laura said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got police officers that are having to go to food banks. I get that there\u2019s a lot of people in really bad situations this year, but how could that be right that someone on a full-time pay is in a position where they have to go to a food bank to have a handout?<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always argue that police officers should continue to get a pay rise because of the job that we do. It is not a well-paid job anymore, especially when you\u2019re first starting out, compared to a lot of other jobs when you then cater in the unsociable hours, the expectations and the risks that we face.\u201d<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Laura said she understood that the Chancellor had to balance the books, and that it had been a difficult year. But she added: \u201cThis comes as a slap to police officers because they have continued – like the NHS who have been heroes throughout the pandemic – but officers are still continuing to put themselves at risk, having to come to work every single day and police this pandemic as well. They\u2019re facing that exposure to Covid and then taking it home to their families, and I think a pay rise it would have recognised that extra support and commitment that the police forces have shown throughout the year<\/span>\u00a0in the same way doctors and nurses have been recognised.\u201d<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

Officers are frustrated and dismayed by the decision, Laura said, many of whom are already on the breadline.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI\u00a0<\/span>sit on the Essex Benevolent\u00a0Fund and we\u2019re seeing more and more requests from officers that are coming into really hard times and you look at their reasons behind why they\u2019re asking for assistance and some of this is through no fault of their own. Their<\/span>\u00a0partners\u00a0<\/span>might have either been made redundant or have lost their jobs as a result of Covid throughout the year and all of that has that knock-on impact.<\/span><\/u><\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers are having to look at other ways they can try and supplement their pay which, for some officers, may mean them considering getting a second job or having a business interest just in order to make ends meet. We will always be saying\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0officers\u2019 rest days should be for exactly that, to rest, because their work days are demanding and they shouldn\u2019t be having to work a second job just to\u00a0get by.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE public sector pay freeze has come as a \u201cslap in the face\u201d to the hardworking police officers who have been keeping people safe during the Covid-19 pandemic, Essex Police\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153627,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153456\/revisions\/153627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/107106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}