NCJ Number
78121
Date Published
1978
Length
53 pages
Annotation
This report of the United Kingdom's Committee on Inquiry on the Police reviews the existing negotiating machinery for the police service and recommends revisions.
Abstract
Police in the United Kingdom are statutorily prohibited from joining a trade union or taking strike action. The existing statutory negotiating body is the Police Council for the United Kingdom, which is now regulated by Section 4 of the Police Act of 1969. This body consists of an official side representing employers and a staff side representing the various police organizations. Council members are appointed by and represent those bodies whch compose the Police Council. The Chairman is elected annually and alternately from either side. Despite the existence of negotiating machinery, the holding of periodic independent reviews of police pay has been found essential. Each inquiry concluded that the police were underpaid and recommended a substantial pay increase. Between each independent review, pay increases have substantially eroded. An important part of the work of the Committee on Inquiry of the Police was to assess why the existing negotiating machinery has been unable to maintain the pay scales accorded by the independent reviews. This report recommends establishment of a new negotiating body with a new format that provides for an independent chairman and secretariat. This body should be designed to avoid the suspicion and hostility which are currently prevalent. Specific recommendations are offered in the areas of the process for determining pay and certain conditions of service, membership of the negotiating body, structure of the negotiating machinery, conciliation and arbitration, and the powers of the Secretaries of State. Appended are the names of persons who gave oral evidence to the Committee and a history of the negotiating machinery.