Federation welcomes 'no-nonsense' pay commitment from Chief Constable
The Police Federation for Northern Ireland has given a warm welcome to assurances from the Chief Constable on a badly needed 7% pay award to officers.
Mr Boutcher told the Northern Ireland Policing Board he wanted to see the pay ‘logjam’ resolved. If that meant breaching his accounting officer responsibilities and facing the sanction of the Board and the Departments of Justice and Finance, then ‘we’ll get into territory if we need to.’ He added that ‘that’s the way that this is going.’
PFNI Chair, Liam Kelly, said: “This was a no-nonsense commitment from Mr Boutcher which this Federation warmly welcomes.
“It shows he has our back and is willing to go into bat on behalf of all rank-and-file. He sees an iniquitous, unbalanced and unjustified withholding of the pay award and is calling it out. He does so with our full support.
“Clearly, the Chief Constable is not in any mood to dilly dally on a pay award during a vicious cost-of-living crisis. Our men and women deserve better and he fully acknowledges that fact.
“The Government must sit up and take notice of what we and the Chief Constable are saying. They must stop the procrastination and act with haste to give our officers what they are due, and it must be backdated to September in line with what colleagues in England and Wales received.
“Our pay scales are bad enough and are in need of an overhaul for the Service to attract and retain the best. Too many officers are leaving because they can’t afford to remain, and that is a crying shame and also an indictment on a Government that has shown scant regard for the dangerous job they do.”