MLAs' £14k pay hike 'slap in the face of public sector workers', says policing body after years of underfunding and wage disputes
Stormont’s move to award MLAs a 27% pay increase is an ‘insult to public sector’, a body representing Northern Ireland’s police rank and file has said.
The slam came after the past few years saw everything from hospitals to schools to road repairs struggling to cope with underfunding, while widespread wage disputes saw public sector workers repeatedly take industrial action.
Just this month, a two-year court battle resolved with an offer of £7,500 in compensation to all PSNI officers and staff after a massive data breach put the entire workforce’s personal info in the hands of dissident republicans.
With MLAs now set to see their pay go up by over £14,000 a year, almost double the amount of compensation officers had to fight to receive, the Police Federation of Northern Ireland has branded the £53,000 to £67,200 rise ‘a disgraceful reward for doing very little as legislators’.
Said the body’s chair, Liam Kelly: “If the elected representatives have anything in them, they'll forego the 27% hike to show the rest of us that they’re in the real world.
“We, and other public sector workers, struggle to get minimum, single-digit pay awards across the line – but it's clearly one rule for MLAs, and another for police officers and others.
“This is unjustified and a slap in the face for the people who make up the public sector.
“There's now a public consultation underway and we’ll be delivering a clear message to MLAs – get real, and show some empathy with others who are treated poorly when it comes to decent and not unreasonable annual pay rewards.”