I doubt anyones seen the like since the Jarrow march.
Just as a side issue I was talking to someone in my industry, who has a professional interest in pay scales and they pointed out that pay had remained pretty much static in the last four years.
Now the police are entitled to a fair days pay for a days work which is what they currently get.
There has been much made of the fact that the police are unable to go on strike however there will be many like me who work for agencys and also don't have any effective means of striking since they will find themselves replaced on the next shift.
The police work hard and so do I, the difference is that in addition to good benefits, pensions and the like, they also get pay which rises, for no other reason every year, than it happens to be the practice of government, to increase pay whether the rest of us can afford it or not.
My advice to the police is think yourself lucky, my day started at 5am and finished at 6:30 pm for which I will only get paid 9 hours!
Recently the chief constable of Kent saw fit to openly criticize the police pay award, what I would ask is why don't the Kent Police Authority ask Mr Fuller to concentrate on crime rather than politics.
Police start on 21K with pay going up into the 30's and 40' s with promotion, and god knows at senior level, and don't forget many retire in their early fifties, I suggest you don't get to upset about hard up police just yet.
I'd seek a new job if I were you.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked in the public sector there was a general feeling that we were not as well paid as everyone else. I didn't know then what I know now!
ReplyDeleteAs you mention - agency work.
Also - many people are self employed or run small businesses.
They get paid when there is work but may have little way of guaranteeing continuous work.
No holiday, sick pay or employer contributing to their pension.
Competition driving prices down so low that it must have consequences.
Oh come on you lot,
ReplyDeleteThis is not about amounts of pay, its about trust. The police do not have the right to strike, so binding arbitration should mean so. If the government cannot agree to that they should leave office and let people who do so take control. The police have learnt an important lesson, do not trust those who take your rights away!
and matt i would seek another blog.
ReplyDeletemrs t p you clearly understand what i am on about.
Ken you sound like someone who has been on the public payrol. I thought tory s would accept the need for some looking after the taxpayer .
Any way as i tap this reply out on my phone, on the journey home i know i have done my bit to keep the public sector in the style to which its become accustomed and i wish i didnt have to
Kent's pensioners who are hard strapped to pay the Kent part of Council Tax might also like to note that they also Fund Kent Police and a huge kent Police Pensions Fund. Little old ladies on small pensions paying Council Tax for well-off ex-policemen! Nice one!
ReplyDelete" The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith should be honest enough to accept she's made a mistake and reverse the decision" says The Chief Constable. He should know that politicians at National and Local level of whatever political shade, these days never admit they were wrong and reverse decisions.
ReplyDeleteTake a local issue that is brewing down in Broadstairs at Culmers Land. We could say:
"TDC should be honest enough to accept it has made a mistake with the siting of security fencing at Culmers Land and reposition it"
Will it happen?
Oh come on, as recent history has shown, the Tories, especially when led by a nutter like Thatcher, work hard to keep in with the police and the armed forces. They might need to use them as they did in the miners strike.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is we live in an age of a flexible work force . at least in the police or the services you can have a career and retire on a pension.As for agency work I think Marx called it exploitation.
ReplyDeleteWe got our money's worth this week. 40 rozzers to nick eight teenagers armed with deadly felt tip pens!
ReplyDeletewhen the police start doing a good job then give them a pay rise. The british police get paid to much alreay for a piss poor job. over paid lazy buch of coppers.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Criminal damage law came in, at the back end of 1971, on my rural beat it was made known (by local landowners and investors) that the village copper would be on fifty quid per Criminal damage arrest. (2.5 times a Pc's weekly wage)
ReplyDeleteIt was 2 quid for each sudden death referral to the funeral director and 2 quid per referral per vehicle for accident recovery work to the garage.
Fictitious poachers (invented by gamekeepers to explain a poor yield) were another source of tax free consideration.
Real poachers causing a call out would result in payment from both gamekeeper anxious for a quick backup and at the weekend from the landowners/shooters (which on my beat included one home secretary)
Anonymous letter responses often ended up with an anonymous gift when results occurred.
I remember opening one letter which gave a registration number and moaned that the beggar was unlicensed, uninsured, no raoid tax, no MOT why should he get away with it when hardworking poorly paid villagers play by the rules.
Ten minutes out of the station and the said car hove into view.
No tax, no insurance, no driving licence, no MOT.
Then I got an arrest with warrant on him (failing to turn up at court)
Then I got the guy who took the car over. No tax no MOt no insurance no raod tax failing to notify change of ownership plys doing the original party for failing to notify change of ownership.
Back then some pratt (Home Office) asked me to experiment with a new idea of "Intelligence targetting". (Yes back in 1971)
I thought "What a pratt". Do far better with a steady flow of anonymous letters followed by anonymous gifts.
Oddly enough it was an anonymous letter actioned by amongst others yours truly (and he you call the irritating bloke) which led to the detection of the IRA frauds on DHSS base in Thanet later in the 70s. But that was in Thanet not a generous bunch .....
In my old force rural beat PCs and townie Coroners Officers refused promotion. Also traffic cops as they were on a good retainer. In the town the fore runners of the Yardies had the CID and even the Panda car drivers on a regular bung.
Promotion meant taking a cut in income.
Personally I prefer a good rogue in the police. They know where to draw the line.
All these police studies theorists have surrendered the peace.
I am right with you Tony.
My basic pay was low decades ago. But the ways and means act meant my income was determined by results ? And I did not lie to secure convictions.
Modern day police ? Get another job and let better people join up.
At 35 minutes from the nearest police help it was handy if you could dish out a bit of don't bother the Courts.
For example we started to get a problem with vandalism on a conservation area. Gangs of yobs.
Obviously favourite was a few lucrative criminal damage arrests.
But that had to be foregone.
Howver one morning a couple of yobs came up the station and complained about a madman in a khaki overcoat who leapt on them as they walked innocently at midnight in the Conservation area. Too scared to go back in there at night with a nutter about.
Apparently one of the hardest yobs had been shoved facedown in the mud and had even suffered the indignity of mud blocking his nostrils !
Who the f-ck was down there with a khaki greatcoat on (hiding his silver buttoned uniform) ?
Baffles me .....
Best wishes the old rogue
A Constable pays 11% of their salary into their pension, thats around £265.00 pcm. If anyone feels aggreived at public service pensions may I suggest you leave your current employment and join the civil service, police, health service, local authority etc? You are free to do so you know.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.anotherconstable.co.uk/blog/2007/12/no-sympathy/