A PAY rise for police officers in Essex has been tarnished by the lack of action on the South East allowance, Essex Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
The Home Office has announced officers will get a 2.5% boost to their pay packets, which it said equates to around \u00a3978 more a year on average.<\/p>\n
It billed the rise, which reflects Police Remuneration Review Body recommendations, as \u2018inflation-busting\u2019.<\/p>\n
While Essex Police Federation says the award is \u2018positive step\u2019 it\u2019s tempered by the PRRB\u2019s recommendation that the South East Allowance should be reviewed further by the NPCC.<\/p>\n
The allowance, paid to officers to help combat increased regional living costs is currently worth \u00a32,000 a year to officers.<\/p>\n
Steve Taylor, Essex Police Federation Chairman, said reviewing it was not a \u2018good move\u2019, especially given London weighting has been increased by 2.5%.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome the fact that the Home Office has adopted the PRRB submission in full and consequently our members will be getting 2.5% pay increase this year. It\u2019s a while since we\u2019ve had an award that large, and whilst we would like it to be bigger, it\u2019s a step in the right direction. So that\u2019s a positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was less than positive was the kicking of the South East allowance into the long grass. Unlike the London weighting, which they were happy to increase by 2.5%, they\u2019ve suggested that the South East allowance can be viewed as part of the pay and remuneration package being looked at by the NPCC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a good move, this is not a sensible move, and I\u2019m disappointed that the PRRB has recommended as such,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s likely the review will take time to complete, Steve added, and he\u2019s now urging for the allowance to be ringfenced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pay review being done by the NPCC is going to take a considerable amount of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt consists of a wide package of levers that Chief Officers, in theory, will be able to pull on. But I reject the premise that the South East allowance is one such lever. It\u2019s in Police Regulations. It\u2019s an allowance owed to officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly called for and it should be paid, consolidated in the award we get from Government. So, yes, we are disappointed about the South East allowance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fact that the allowance differs across forces is also not helpful he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cForces do different things – it\u2019s pitting one against the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted it to be linked, rather than a set fee that hasn\u2019t gone up since its inception – our amount has not gone up – we wanted it to be linked to inflation, index-linked like the London weighting is.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we wanted it to be for them to recognise it reflects the cost of living rather than just for recruitment and retention, because all too commonly forces hide behind, in my view, the fact that they\u2019re able to recruit lots of people, therefore they can\u2019t have a recruitment and retention problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey seem to conveniently forget the fact that we\u2019re losing people out the door, in some cases as quick as we can get them in the front door.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"