 Police officers have marched in protest at their pay deal |
The police have abandoned a court battle against the government to backdate a pay award for officers to last September. The Police Federation lost a claim the Home Secretary acted unlawfully when she refused to pay their 2.5% award. Jacqui Smith did not backdate the rise in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to September 2007 - which effectively reduced its worth to 1.9%. The Police Federation says it will not appeal against the High Court ruling. The federation said it would write to all MPs to ask for their support in ensuring that decisions on pay made by the independent Police Arbitration Tribunal be made binding in future.  |  The ball is in the government's court. |
If that was not implemented by the next pay round, the federation would lobby for the right to take strike action, a spokesman said. He said the federation had taken legal advice that it would be fighting a "losing battle" if it tried to appeal against the High Court decision. The spokesman added: "The ball is in the government's court." Police do not have the right to go on strike over pay but have their pay disputes referred to arbitration. The results of the arbitration are binding on police officers but not on the government. Police 'betrayed' The implementation of the pay deal was delayed by the government until December 2007. The arbitration tribunal recommended the 2.5% award be backdated to September but the government decided not to, saying this was in line with its inflation target. However, police officers in Scotland have had the award, as Scottish ministers decided to accept the decision of the Police Arbitration Tribunal. England and Wales Police Federation Chairman Paul McKeever said: "Over the past ten months we have seen a weak Home Secretary, bullied by a new Prime Minister, seriously let down police officers across the UK. "If the government want to restore any trust with the police service, we must have independent arbitration that is binding on all parties, and that includes the Home Secretary." In January, more than 20,000 police officers marched on Westminster in protest at the decision. Since then, 60,500 Police Federation members have voted in favour of lobbying for the right to go on strike.
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