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Nov 3, 2011 -- Police bosses are to pay out tens of thousands of pounds in backdated overtime to cops working in 999 call centres after a blunder by management.

For years, officers called in to work on their days off have been underpaid.

Now after the Manchester branch of the Police Federation started legal action, Greater Manchester Police has agreed to pay up.

The wrangle concerns staff working for the force’s under pressure Operations and Communications Branch – radio operators answering 999 calls.

There are currently about 150 police officers in the OCB but some of those due backdated pay may have now retired or moved to another department.

Hundreds of civilians also work in the branch but are not affected by the dispute.

Chris Burrows, chairman of the Manchester branch of the Federation, said: "When an officer is asked to work on a rest day at short notice they should receive a minimum of six hours pay.

"What has been happening in the OCB is that, as the branch has been under pressure, staff have been asked to come in to work say 12 noon until 5pm on their rest days – and only paid for five hours.

"We had to start county court action with two test cases against the force for this to be settled. You would expect that something like this could have been resolved through negotiations – having to go these lengths doesn't do anyone any favours – it has cost us money and the force money."

"The most officers can claim retrospectively is six years. Someone made a mistake – who, they don’t know."

The M.E.N reported last month how police call handlers said the 999 system was going into meltdown as budget cuts started to bite.

They fear the public and officers on the ground are being put at increased risk because they aren’t enough call handlers to cope with the volume of calls.

GMP bosses denied the claims and said the OCB branch would increase from 677 staff to around 700 despite £5.5m in cuts. GMP is proposing to close one of its call-handling centres at Leigh, leaving three sites at Old Trafford, Claytonbrook in east Manchester and Ashton-under-Lyne.

Bosses also want to introduce new shift patterns and have begun reducing the number of radio channels from two to one to save cash. It is part of a drive by the force to find savings of £134m by 2015 and axe about 3,000 jobs.

A force official said: "Greater Manchester Police are unable to comment at this stage due to on-going legal proceedings."

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://menmedia.co.uk

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