National Delegate Conference 21-24 June
2011
Cops off the streets and into our jobs
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George McIrvine
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Conference slammed the use of front line police to take over
UNISON members’ jobs. A Tayside Police Staff motion said the branch
faces a ‘double-whammy’ of UNISON frontline jobs being made redundant
and then these so-called ‘redundant’ post being backfilled by
police officers.
This ‘legal loophole’ is a kick in the teeth to staff members
already made redundant or facing the threat of redundancy. The
motion called on governments to stop replacing posts by taking
police officers off the streets.
George McIrvine, Tayside Police Staff Branch, told delegates,
"I'm no Taggarti, I'm no Z Cars and I'm no Miss Marple, what
Iam is a police staff member, not to be mistaken for a police
officer, they are an entirely different beast.
"It is fair to suggest that a police officer is "the long
arm of the law" however the police staff make up the rest of the
machine, we are the heart and soul, we are the very life blood
that keeps the whole body functioning to protect and serve your
community. Without us it will not work, it will die".
"When you watch the TV or read a paper - say reporting at
a major crime scene, the people in the photograph or on your tele
will be our members, scenes of crimes officers, forensic staff,
PSCOs all carrying out their duties.
"Our motion calls for action regarding redundant posts
being backfilled by police officers. This happens in no other
area of the public sector, when a post is made redundant my understanding
is the post no longer exists, however chief constables throughout
Scotland and the rest of the uk have adopted this practice".
These very police officers are earning minimum £38,000 for a
constable doing a job that our member would have been earning
on average half of that.
"In Tayside in the last 6 months we have seen a 12% reduction
in police staff", said George.
"Another crazy situation has arisen in that the nationalist
government along with the Tories supported an extra 1000 cops
on the streets of Scotland. This has resulted in the nationalists
interfering politically with police numbers in each force.
"Due to budget cuts, the only alternative to balance their
books is to cut our members jobs. It gets worse, after May's Scottish
elections, "not so Bonnie Prince Alex" the First Minister of Scotland
has pledged to maintain these officer numbers for the next five
years. Good God this will equate to none of us in existence, it
just can't be".
Conference asked the NEC to: write to the Association of Chief
Police Officers and Association of Chief Police Officers (Scotland)
to advise them to resist using this practice; write to the justice
ministers of Scotland, England and Wales to warn them to stop
replacing redundant posts by taking police officers off the streets;
highlight this situation to the public; survey police branches
to collect evidence of this practice; produce legal and negotiating
guidance for police branches on the circumstances under which
police officers are re-deployed into police staff posts.
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