- Conference
- 2014 Police & Justice Conference
- Date
- 24 June 2014
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that:
1)The Police Staff Council has ensured 18 years of industrial harmony in police forces in England and Wales.
2)This positive industrial relations climate has not come about by chance, but is the product of hard work on the part of all stakeholders on the Council.
3)The Police Staff Council Handbook (amended in 2004) has stood the test of time, but like any collective agreement requires periodic review to ensure that it is continuing to meet the needs of both employees and employers, and to ensure that it is compliant with equality legislation.
4)There remains a big question mark over the record of police forces in carrying out job evaluation and pay and grading reviews to ensure that their pay systems are equality proofed.
5)The Winsor Review of police staff remuneration did not provide the basis for a new settlement for police staff pay and conditions, despite the Police Staff Council spending nearly two years work on the project.
6)Police staff have borne more than their fair share of the 20% cuts to police budgets, as redundancies have reduced their numbers to a greater degree to those of police officers.
7)Two forces – Surrey and Kent – remain outside the Police Staff Council.
In light of the failure of the Winsor agenda for police staff, Conference further notes that:
a)The Police Staff Council is committed to re-open talks on potential reforms to police staff pay and conditions;
b)A survey of police staff pay rates was completed in early 2014 to provide the data for the review of pay and conditions to begin;
c)A Police Staff Council Working Party is due to begin meeting in the summer of 2014 to scope potential changes to the way in which police staff in England and Wales are paid and rewarded;
Conference believes that UNISON should be open to the potential for reform of police staff pay and conditions and welcomes the opportunity for the Police Staff Council to begin scoping potential ideas for change via negotiation. Conference calls upon the Service Group Executive to seek to ensure that:
i)Branches and members are fully informed and consulted at appropriate times in relation to the 2014 Police Staff Council pay and conditions reform project;
ii)Members are able to vote on any final offer that emerges from the negotiations;
iii)Equality considerations to be central to UNISON’s negotiating strategy;
iv)A national pay and grading system for all police staff in England and Wales remains part of the Trade Union Side’s objective for any final offer on pay and conditions reform;
v)Kent and Surrey Police be invited to join the Police Staff Council to enable both forces and their staff to consider any final offer on national pay and conditions, subject to consultation of UNISON members in both forces