Police staff could lose a ‘substantial’ amount of their wage packets in wake of recommendations

The biggest police staff union, Unison, says it will continue to resist “negative” recommendations listed in Tom Winsor’s review on pay and conditions – which it claims could see some members losing as much as 30 per cent of their salaries.

Unison’s Police and Justice Conference heard that under Winsor Part II police staff who work shifts would lose “a substantial amount of pay and pension”.

The report recommends the scrapping of police staff shift allowances in favour of a single unsocial hours allowance. But this change would only apply to staff who work a night shift between 8pm and 6am - and those working outside these hours would receive no additional allowance at all.

Winsor’s proposals also recommend paying staff at normal rates for Sundays and that police staff pay should be brought into line with local pay rates in the “minimum wage private sector”.

The conference heard that some members would stand to lose 30 per cent of their salaries – despite having to continue to work antisocial hours.

One PCSO who addressed the conference said: “I would lose £396 a month – many police staff would be unable to meet their obligations each month and it would push them into debt.”

Another police staff member said: “We cannot let what has happened to our police officer colleagues happen to us over Winsor.”

Unison is currently in negotiations over Winsor II through the Police Staff Council (PSC) although previous negotiations on Winsor I became deadlocked after no progress was made.

At the conference, Unison said it would also maintain its negotiating position for the creation of a single, national pay and grading structure for all police staff.

It claims that in rejecting the idea Mr Winsor endorsed a “minority view” on the employers side – as even the Association of Police Authorities was in favour of the union's argument. Currently police staff are either paid on the PSC scale or have local force salary scales.

Unison says it is also disappointed that the Home Secretary, Theresa May, only referred “negative recommendations” made by Mr Winsor for their decision on the PSC.

In a motion the union approved continued national negotiations – while accepting that the Winsor II report was “more balanced” than its predecessor, members said they continued to have significant concerns at many of his recommendations.