- Conference
- 2022 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 30 June 2022
- Decision
- Carried
There are pockets of policing which are still outsourced to private enterprise. This means that there are staff working for our policing services who are subjected to less favourable terms and conditions than those which many of our colleagues have managed to secure through the Police Staff Council and union influence. The staff affected need the platform to be able to influence the employers to improve terms and conditions, but better still for Police services to have all staff insourced.
Action is needed as the staff are suffering with a combination of low pay, rotating shift work, inconsistent shift patterns and duty changes at short notice meaning difficulty in managing work life balance. Many people rely on overtime to make ends meet. Sick pay is statutory at £99.35 per week so they avoid calling in sick at all costs and they come to work when they are unwell, it is only when they cannot manage any more that they take time off and it is usually for a more extended period. Mileage rates barely cover the actual cost of driving to and from other places of work and many staff are contracted to work at more than one station or office, meaning that they do not receive any mileage or time for travelling between, taking this into account their actual income can be below minimum wage. HR and Wellbeing services are all remote and therefore not easy to access. Training and development are at bare minimum. The staff are surrounded by employees in other departments that are paid better with lots of support and development opportunities. The outsourced staff really are annexed off from the rest of the workforce and it is completely demoralising, staff attrition is a constant issue.
We have been successful and had services returned to public sector employment, but we haven’t finished, we cannot give up on those that are left behind, don’t forget the outsourced. We must ensure that they have a voice to be able to raise the difficulties that they face and prevent further erosion of their T&Cs and living standards. We need to make sure that outsourced staff are represented at all levels to discuss the impact that privatisation has on service provision and to influence the Police and Justice organisations to see that outsourcing is not the way forward if they want to be seen as a fair and responsible public service.
Conference, we call on the Service Group Executive (SGE) to:
1)Mount a recruitment campaign to reach all members of outsourced staff in Policing services;
2)Support branches to continue to seek out and include activists and reps from within outsourced functions and to encourage them in their continued involvement at all levels and at Private Contractor Seminar;
3)Encourage branches to recognise the difficulties outsourced staff representatives have in taking facility time and with support from Regional and National staff negotiate obtaining recognition agreements where they don’t exist.