New Year’s Eve disruption to London policing as staff strike over pay

The union says this will cause “disruption” to MPS services on one of the most hectic days of the year for the force.

The workers include call centre staff, fleet services technicians and office staff servicing and dispatching vehicles such as police cars and motorbikes.

They have voted to take 25 hours of strike action starting at 6am on New Year’s Eve as Unite says they have not had a pay increase from the MPS for 2025/26.

“This is despite the fact the Met has paid a 4.2 per cent pay rise to police officers and all other forces in the UK have given both police officers and staff the 4.2 per cent increase,” said Unite.

“Instead, the Met Police has put forward two provisional offers. The first is a below-RPI pay increase of 3.8 per cent, while the second is a 4.2 per cent offer, conditional on workers accepting vastly inferior conditions.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is unacceptable that our members in the Met are the only workers in UK police forces that have not yet had their pay rise.

“It is a disgrace that the Met has dangled the carrot of a pay rise but is also offering the stick of attacks on workers’ terms and conditions. Unite won’t allow our members’ conditions to worsen and the workers have the union’s full support throughout this dispute.”

Last year, policing New Year’s Eve cost the MPS almost £2.3 million.

“As a significant night in policing, strike action will be very disruptive including causing delays to emergency call-outs,” said Unite.

Unite regional officer Keith Henderson said: “We know Londoners will be concerned to hear of strikes on New Year’s Eve, but our members at the Met feel they have no choice but to strike in their fight for a fair pay rise.

“They are being financially penalised by their employer for poor management decisions and cuts that were not their fault.

“The Met has a chance to stop this industrial action, but that relies on it coming back and offering staff the fair pay rise they deserve in line with all the other forces in the country and without changes to terms and conditions.”

Unite is currently also campaigning against plans by the MPS to close ten of the 34 police front desks in the capital. Current plans are to keep just two of them operating 24 hours a day and the rest on reduced hours.

The union believes this will increase crime levels as it will give the general public fewer options for reporting incidents, while almost 100 members of staff could lose their jobs as a result.