We Are Still Waiting!

It's been said by many that policing could be done by trained chimps and for many of our tasks that we carry out that wouldn't be far from the truth!

But we are an emergency service that is 24/7 365 days a year in all weathers and conditions and is fraught with the unexpected, dangerous and stressful situations and when that happens you cannot rely on trained chimps or CSO's for that matter.

We have a unique job which is involving officers who can and will, directly intervene in the lives of the public everyday, sometimes using force when necessary. This brings with it an air of responsibility as often first at the scene of a major incident is a constable.

We deal with crime scenes, serious accidents, seriously disturbed persons, domestic disputes, sexual assaults, murders, domestic assaults, child abuse, gun crime, knife crime We deal with the body retrieval at major incidents like train crashes, car crashes, railway fatalities and then deliver the bad news to the families of the deceased.

Recently, we dealt with the London bombings, the floodings, the Heathrow protests, the recent terror attack on Glasgow airport and the failed terror attack in London the list goes on and on! Couple this up with routine run of the mill calls such as burglary, shop lifters and car crime it's a wonder we have anyone left to do anything.

I would safely say that many people who work outside the police service would baulk at the idea of having to put up with half the amount we have to do if they were required to do it.

I said in a previous entry about the prisoners strike that I think we should bundle the teachers, nurses and other emergency services in with each other, we are here to do a job and we do it knowing what the stress could do to us, knowing that debt, gambling, alcoholics and divorce rates are high among us because of what we have to do and see each and every day. But we continue, why? because we are driven by morals, ethics and we swore an oath to do this job.

However, government policy is set to destroy the already heavily dented morale of the over stretched police service. Even if the arbitration finds in our favour and the ruling is binding on both the staff and official sides of the Police Negotiation Board, it is not binding on the Home Office!

It is possible that if we do receive a pay rise it will be staged, meaning it will come in two parts to add up to the amount we requested. This means that it will be devalued as inflation would have made the first amount worthless, and the same again for the second part later that year.The pay claim from the staff is 3.94 per cent pay increase while the Official side tabled only a 2.325 per cent offer.

At a conciliation meeting back in August no agreement was reached and we are still waiting for the date for the arbitration hearing.So far nearly 20,000 people have signed the on line petition to Downing Street urging Prime Minister Brown to "stop the Home Office interfering in the negotiating of police pay"

Apparently a Home Office spokesman said that "Pay arrangements must be fair and affordable both for the police service and the tax payer"

Last time I checked, I was a tax payer!

The Fair Pay online petition can be found here: 10 Downing Street Petition and there is an online poll on the right about the right to strike.