Officers are set to march on London in pay dispute
Thousands of frontline officers are due to march on London at the end of this month in protest over the pay dispute.
Thousands of frontline officers are due to march on London at the end of this month in protest over the pay dispute.
The officers, representing the 43 forces in England and Wales, will march through the streets of central London in an unprecedented show of dissent to protest about the Home Secretarys decision not to backdate their pay award.
The Met Police said it had this week agreed a route with the Police Federation. A spokesman said there had been discussion around the fact that there was some concern that the officers wanted to march through Parliament Square at a time during Prime Ministers questions. Statute dictates that the area surrounding Parliament be left clear during this time to allow MPs ease of access to the Commons.
The spokesman also confirmed that Met officers would be policing the event but that final numbers hadnt been decided.
The march comes following an emergency meeting held in London in December of all UK police officer staff associations. At the meeting, a vote of no confidence was taken in Jacqui Smith as Home Secretary.
Officers also called on her to resign as Home Secretary as they said they no longer had any trust or faith in her ability to deal fairly with police pay and conditions.
It was agreed that the rally would take place early in 2008 to show the strength of anger amongst the membership.
It was also agreed that a full ballot of the 140,000 officers in England and Wales would take place to determine, whether in the absence of binding arbitration on the Government, officers wanted the Federation to start to lobby for full industrial rights for them. This is in view of the fact that police officers dont currently have a legal right to strike.
It was also agreed that a meeting should take place in the New Year in the Home Secretarys constituency of Redditch.
The Federation started legal action regarding the Home Secretarys pay decision. It has also sent a letter to the Home Secretary outlining its disgust over what it described as the contempt she has shown us.
An ongoing programme of lobbying MPs is also underway.
The Mets federation has been overwhelmed with inquiries from officers all keen to take part in the march.
Vice chairman Peter Smyth said that a substantial number of officers were planning to take part in the march but might be prevented from doing so because they were expected at work.
We think that a large number of officers will turn out to show the depth of feeling about how officers have been treated by the Government.
Mr Smyth said it was at the discretion of managers as to whether officers were permitted to get time off to take part in the march.
He admitted the Federation was pushing against a big, big wall in its fight to get the current decision overturned. However, he emphasised how important it was for officers to voice their concern about the way the whole process has been handled and its implications for future pay awards.
General Secretary of the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales Pat Stayt said his members were giving their full support to the rally and the sentiments behind it.
Mr Stayt told Police Professional: The fact that officers are going to be lobbying parliament on January 23 is a clear sign of how angry and betrayed they feel.
A dispute affects all officers of all ranks and the president and the national secretary of the Police Superintendents Association, along with other national officers and colleagues throughout the country, will be supporting the rally.
ACPO said this week that although it was extremely disappointed at the Home Secretarys decision to pay the police pay award from December 1 instead of September 1, we value and respect the existing pay machinery including arbitration and therefore have to accept the Home Secretarys decision which she has taken within this process.
The APA said it understands that some authorities and force