Police Federation again criticises compensation review

 

Chairman of the Police Federation Corporal Rohan James is again criticising the government's compensation review programme.

 

Speaking Tuesday at the 80th annual conference of the Police Federation in Trelawny, Corporal James reiterated that the police have not received a decent wage deal under the review.

 

Although the island's rank and file members voted to accept the wage offer, Corporal James said he had warned them about the anomalies in the deal. 

 

"We in our quest did ourselves an injustice and our family, because, as the chairman, I stood and I said to you all as members, let us move strategically to empower ourselves socially and economically and spiritually. But we are not broken because the Minister of Finance and his team have dropped the catch and have thrown the ball right back at us."

 

"Notwithstanding we have signed that contract stipulating terms, conditions as agreed, there are several areas of anomalies that still exist and the Ministry of Finance has not responded appropriately to the Ministry of National Security so that the benefits so inked and agreed to in principle should be performed in the contract," he outlined. 

 

Corporal James made it clear that the Police Federation will be pressing the Ministry of Finance to correct the anomalies in the salaries of rank and file members. 

 

National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang, who also spoke at Tuesday's annual conference of the Jamaica Police Federation, said his Ministry will be working with the Ministry of Finance in the coming weeks to correct the anomalies highlighted by the Federation. 

 

While sypathetic to the plight of police officers, Dr. Chang noted that the compensation review for the entire public sector was critical.

 

"You want a system in place and we work to put that in place over time but we are aware that to convert what was a very confusing and difficult accounting process…there would be some challenges. And that’s why the Heads of Agreement indicate that we have a six-month period. There is a time period we will look at all the issues, anomalies, corrections and what is required to ensure that we have a sensible system in place," he declared.  

 

No remandees            

 

At the same time, Corporal James has again urged the authorities to relieve the police of the responsibility of guarding remandees in police lock-ups across the island.

 

He said many rank and file members have been unfairly disciplined for incidents in overcrowded lock-ups.

 

"Administrative negligence should not afford for the police lock-ups to be overcrowded and for it to be run down in a state and then seek to hold those who have no control over the aesthetics accountable," he argued, adding that many lock-ups should instead be closed.

 

Corporal James said more remand centres must be built so the police can be relieved of guard duty and deployed on the streets to fight crime.