A 3 per cent pay offer for 30,000 police support staff will
be referred to Acas tomorrow for binding arbitration.
Unison, the UK’s largest union has claimed a 6 per cent
increase and the removal of the two lowest salary points – currently £8,790 and
£9,153.
The pay talks broke down in July last year as Unison pushed
to close the gap for support staff members whose pay awards have lagged 1.3 per
cent behind those of police officers.
Ben Priestly, Unison’s national officer and staff side
secretary of the police support staff council, said, “The Government’s aim of
recruiting more police officers will be frustrated if those officers are not
backed up by well paid, properly motivated support staff.
“We are very disappointed with the three per cent offer. Over
the past three years police officers have consistently had higher settlements
than support staff.”
By Ben Willmott
