PSNI pay award welcome but it won't reverse the 'backwards trend' over last decade: Federation

Federation chairman Liam Kelly said the new £1,900 pay uplift, which was signed off by the UK Government last Friday, equates to around 5% across all ranks, but “falls well short of the amount required” to bring police back into line with some other public service bodies.

Mr Kelly said that, for the first time, the pay review body had recommended a set amount pay rise rather than a percentage uplift, meaning student officers will get around 8.8% of an increase compared to well under 1% for some of the most senior officers.

"So that actually is good news for those younger in service, but those who are longer in service, and supervisory ranks who are also feeling the pinch, the uplift percentage wise is a lot less,” he said.

"It is an average of a 5% award when you factor in the upper end and the lower end, but that is still way below inflation, and it falls well short of the amount required to address the real term pay cuts that police have seen over the last ten years.

"So the 5% is very welcome, but if you look right across the public sector there's not one other public sector body that is accepting their pay review body's recommendation. The difficulty we have in the police is that we have no choice but to accept it. We can't take industrial action.

"There is no other process for us. We get what we are given and we are expected to be grateful for it on every occasion.”

Mr Kelly added: "Over the last ten years policing salaries have gone backwards. The starting salary [for a student officer] before this £1,900 uplift was just over £21,000, and our probationer officers were on just over £24,000.

"It would take a police officer five years to get to £30,000. In the Northern Ireland context, and the threat to them on and off duty..; there is no incentive for officers to stay in service and put their lives on the line when they are not being paid properly.

"They can go and do other things for a lot less stress and hassle."

Speaking in support of a more significant pay uplift for police officers, DUP MP Ian Paisley said the PSNI is in a “crisis” that is having a negative impact on morale.

"I do think we have a police service that is in a general crisis,” he told BBC Radio's Nolan Show,

"This flows from a number of things. We should be at a much higher level in terms of [officer] numbers... and [also a] lack of budget in terms of the budget being properly agreed year-on-year."

Mr Paisley added: "We have officers who are living in a cost-of-living crisis which is affecting recruitment and impacting on morale of officers.

"I spoke to a police officer in my constituency. He is a probationer officer who moved into policing because he wanted to serve the community.

"He contacted me in crisis a few weeks ago and said 'I'm paid less than a shop worker in Tesco’".