Police ‘incensed’ about pay claims

Press, 2 April 1980, Page 6

Police ‘incensed’ about pay claims

Front-line policemen in Christchurch are “incensed” about the Government’s attitude towards their pay claims which they say is seriously affecting police morale. After a meeting of the Christchurch district committee of the Police Association yesterday, a spokesman said members were “upset and incensed about the proposal by the Government concerning the State services pay sit-

uation, and, in particular, in relation to their claims for improved penal and overtime payments ” The spokesman said the police were working under a pay formula that had been set in 1966, and which had remained unchanged in spite of a “vast increase” in the pressures and workload on policemen. “Since 1966 we have fallen well behind similar occupational groups both within and outside the

Public Service in the field of overtime and penal rates,” the spokesman said? “The offer by the Government precludes any negotiation on this claim for at least a year, and members of the police in Christchurch are most unhappy about it,” he said. He said morale was bound to suffer if the police had to face long hours and call-backs at holiday times without adequate compensation.