A round-up of HR-related stories in today’s newspapers.
The average police officer could lose up to £5,000 a year under plans to scrap overtime, bonuses and other perks, according to leaked proposals, the Telegraph reports. Police chiefs have submitted a secret document to the Home Office suggesting that hundreds of millions of pounds could be saved by cutting the £450 million a year overtime bill and other “out-of-date” rules on pay and conditions.
Ground staff and security guards were among staff at UK airports who yesterday voted in favour of strike action following what unions described as a “measly” 1% pay offer by airports operator BAA. According to the Guardian, the move could force a “total shutdown” of BAA’s Heathrow, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh airports during one of the busiest holiday periods of the year.
Union leaders have escaped the tough pay restraints being imposed on ordinary workers, it emerged yesterday. The Daily Express reports that rail boss Bob Crow, whose union has just backed strikes on London Underground, and the general secretaries of Unite, Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson, which is threatening to shut down six airports, are receiving six-figure sums.
Defence secretary Liam Fox is set to outline plans to overhaul the Ministry of Defence (MoD). They are likely to lead to significant reductions in the number of civilian personnel, in addition to large cuts already planned for the armed forces, the BBC reports. In his speech at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Fox is expected to say the MoD needs to undergo radical change to make it less centralised and give more power to military commanders.
