‘We’ve had enough’: North Wales Police Federation secretary hits out over pay freeze

Police officers are considering quitting their roles after being left angered over a decision on their pay.

The secretary of the North Wales Police Federation said he and his colleagues were “fed up” after the UK Government announced pay for officers earning over £24,000 would not be increased this year.

Mark Jones said officers were at the end of their tether after being assaulted and coughed on by criminals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He also questioned the purpose of the independent body that reviews police pay in an interview with BBC Radio Wales on Friday.

He said: “There’s numerous issues that have really frustrated us here.

“One is the mechanism in which police pay is decided, there’s no independence whatsoever and the government basically dictates what the pay is going to be.

“The second thing is just the general contempt in which the government treats police officers in this country, and we’ve had enough.

“Over this last 18 months we’ve had police officers who’ve been attacked and deliberately coughed at in their faces.

“They go through it day in, day out and they put their lives literally on the line every single day.

“For the government now to make this decision that they’re not worth a single penny more, in fact, in real terms it’s a pay cut, is just unacceptable.”

When asked to describe the current state of police morale, he said: “We know other support agencies like the NHS and the ambulance service are really struggling too.

“All of us are battling as much as we can to pick up this demand and it has taken its toll on police officers.

“It’s quite disappointing and upsetting as for the first time in my career, I’m speaking to colleagues who are genuinely considering leaving the police to go and seek other ways of life and other employment.

“That never happened before. You’d join the police and you stayed until your retirement.

“But people are saying now: ‘I just don’t want to do this anymore and I want to get out’.

“That’s disappointing as what you’ll see is a huge turnover of staff, you’re going to see a great loss of experience leaving the police, and something has to change.

“It’s really down to the government now and senior leaders within police to really value our frontline colleagues.”