- Conference
- 2021 Police and Justice Conference
- Date
- 24 June 2021
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that police staff often work additional hours and not just on rest days. Often staff need to remain on duty to process prisoners, gather crime scene marks, speak with customers either on the phone or in front offices and many more reasons. Staff can currently only claim these additional hours worked as pay and overtime payment will be made at the appropriate enhanced rate.
Police officers who remain on duty are able to claim the additional hours worked as payment or TOIL, however, TOIL will be enhanced. If the TOIL remains unused it will automatically be converted to pay and at the enhanced rate.
Conference recognises that officers are Servants of the Crown and as such are subject to Police Regulations and not deemed to be employees, however, as the requirement to remain on duty is often the same for officers and staff it is causing disconnect for officers to be treated more favourably than staff.
Conference was pleased to have parity with officers agreed in the last revision of the handbook in 2017, whereby TOIL banked for working on a day not originally rostered as a working day or on a Bank Holiday is now automatically paid if not used within three months – this being in line with officer colleagues, however police staff should also be able to claim overtime hours as TOIL if this is their preference.
Conference therefore instructs the Service Group Executive to work with the trade union side of the Police Staff Council to review the disparity and negotiate parity with officers to ensure staff can also elect to claim enhanced TOIL when working overtime.