Reconciliation in sight?
Earlier today, Jan Berry, the chair of the Police Federation, attempted to bring the acrimonious pay dispute between the Home Office and the Police to a close. In an open letter to Jacqui Smith, says that she believes that the Home Secretary was ill advised and that the fracas was not her fault. She then goes on to say that it’s not too late, and urges against the situation, “escalating.”
This offer of an olive branch is, I suppose, admirable, and certainly more sensible than anything the government’s done so far. But I do hope that the Federation are sincere in their promise that they, “have no intention of letting this go.” I fear it would be very damaging if they do.
Let us ignore the exact fiscal connotations of the pay agreement for the moment, and just look at what’s happened so far. The pay-agreement was made during arbitration. The Home Office broke the agreement. Naturally, the police were angry, and equally naturally want their pay.
But let’s look at this another way now. The government broke its promise. If it’s willing to do that to its most loyal agents, how does that bode for the electorate? Badly, I fear. Certainly, it’s not going to do new Labour’s reputation for (dis)honesty any good. The Brown government has already got a poor reputation for being economical with its own words from the election, the EU Constitution and the like. This blatant breach of trust can only make that image worse.
And what about the message this decision sends out to employers? The government, which should be setting an example, is lying to its own workers. Doesn’t that only give carte blanche to any employer in business that does the same? Gordon thinks it’s okay, after all. Certainly, it now seems hypocritical for the government to criticise any employer in business for deceiving the workforce or the public. Which is a shame, especially given that this is meant to be a Labour government.
So I hope that Smith caves in on this, for everyone’s sake. I don’t think she will, as Brown’s government has a fanatical commitment to not raising inflation, ever - despite the fact that upheaval seems distinctly more likely with a militant police force than the negligible increase in inflation meeting this agreement would cause. But, we’ll see.
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