Policemen want pay boost

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34107, 20 March 1976, Page 17

Policemen want pay boost

by

PA UL RANSLEY)

I j Discontent about pay (is growing among rank-and-file members of the police, according to some sources. (( Some policemen predict that unless salaries are reviewed soon, resignations will increase, especially among senior noncommissioned officers. Differences in pay between ranks has been described as critical and likely to affret morale and the retention of. staff. Existing police pay has' not been reviewed since 1970 except for cost-of-living adjustments. The 1975 annual confer-( ence of the Police Associa-i (ti.on unanimous!) passed a ! motion that salaries and marlgins be reviewed. I Some of the complaint is' (directed against the Police. Association — the police “union” — and its executive! director (Mr H. Thomas). I Disappointed policemen have described the executive as “lax in pressing and preparing for wage increases” j and “tied to the apron strings of the Commissioner of Police.” Policemen pushing for! wage increases claim that.' since 1956, margins had been eroded so much that a! constable would have to|< have an average pay rise ot $95 a year, a sergeant ( $512.59, and a senior- 1

■ sergeant $759 to get back t 1956 levels A former detective inspec- ' tor who is now lecturing in ( law at Victoria University Wellington. Mr R. \. M<<odi» j . (said that margins had always t been a problem. . "Because the commis- . sinner’s salary is s., ]. . salaries below his are de- , pressed. Some seni. sergeants will not sit examinations for promotion be '(cause promotion often means La drop in salary." he said, f "The situation has existed (for about 15 years and has jeaused a lot of discontent ’’ > SPECIAL CONDITIONS : in spite of criticism, the president of the Police As- . (sociation (Detective Senior.(Sergeant R. L. Butler) seems i to be aware of the problem. ( At the association’s annual [conference last October he Jwas reported to have said on . the question of pay which, . apart from cost-of-living ad.(justments, had not been re-( [viewed since 1970: "1 realise that economic and stabilisation regulations have been (necessary, but I am not altogether convinced that they (should be totally applied to police, who have special conditions of service and occupa-! (tional hazards with which no! [other type of employment can be compared.” ( Arguing for a wage in ( (crease in 1970 the association! (submitted: "In considering the, question of retention of men (the lesson learned in 1966-67; ■ should be remembered. At T

that time it was discovered that there was an upsuige in resignations at around the seventh year of service After consideration and action by this association the pay scale was altered to improve the increments payable. The resignation rate immediately evened out." ''The public are often under a false, impression To sav (that $7OOO to $7500 is great pay for a cop is incorrect I be man s pay is dose: to $6OOO and the extra is made up bv (long hours and rotation shifts. If a policeman was paid strictly for hours worked under pay scales in private and commercial sector- he would be earning in exits- at 'slo,ooo to $12,000 a year." according to one sourn Basic pay scales tor police (men from July. 1975, not including the recent 3.2 per cent wage older, with full pay rates, including overtime penal, and night-rate ele (ments in parenthesis, were first year. $5641 ($7176) ninth year $6342 (sso42). after 25 years $6806 ($8615; A senior constable after 25 years earned in basic pay ($1164 more than a firsl-yeai constable. A first-vear sergeant earned $6692 i. 58721): after three years $7.35(1 ($9287). A first year senior-sergeant earned $7551 ($9535): alter thiee years $81.35 ($10,257). Policemen who are dissatis tied say that a 19.37 margin ol 10 per cent between a con stable's and a sergeant'- pay is satisfactory. Except for a

short rise to 102 per cen' when the Police Vsocuitior was formed, the diltereme it pay between those lanks hasteadily shrunk.