Hi

[Hedgey]

Hello. was told to pop along and say hi.. it all looks nice and new

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

Nice to have you visit our forum, hopefully it will develop into a useful point of contact and discussion, and maybe even a resource as it builds.  Now we seem to be losing more and more police canteens, where a lot of thoughts and views were aired, this might help fill that void.  It should be able to be even better than canteen chat, as it has the ability to bring police officers together on a national and even international basis.

I hope the word goes around. By getting involved now at the start, anyone joining the forum will have the benefit of being able to shape it and get it off to a good start in the right direction....

[FN21]

Just needs some more members to filter in - don't think I've ever been present at the start of a forum, it's quite exciting!!

[Tackleberry]

Evening everyone and welcome. The forum appears to be growing quite quickly already with some good contributions. Hopefully it will continue to grow and be useful for everyone. Thanks everyone for taking the time to read and post on here!

[clarky_18]

Hello all. Just registered and looking forward to the discussions. Clarky

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

Clarky, thanks for registering, hope you find the forum useful.  Being involved from the start means you can have some influence over the way it progresses.

[c3po]

Hi from your first PCSO............

[FN21]

The forum is growing slowly but surely!  Starting to look good! 

[garda 001]

  Hi to all, just thought I'd say hello as I just joined the forum and think it is a great idea.
I'm a member of An Garda Síochána, the Republic of Ireland's Police Force. I hope that more Gardaí will join and make the forum an international communication device. I look forward to discussing any queries my UK colleagues have in relation to policing in Ireland, joining the force or anything at all.
I don't know how the current economic situation is affecting policing in the UK but with all the cutbacks in overtime and recruitment here we have seen a large increase in burglaries and theft from shops and UT's etc. The Government is about to unvail the budget on the 9th December and are proposing to cut our allowances for unsociable hours worked along with a 10% paycut. Earlier this year they introduced a pension levy which saw our take home pay reduced by up to €500 a month. This levy is a percentage of income so the more you earn the more you pay. Most of our younger members or members on the lower pay scales are struggling to pay their mortgages etc. We can't afford any more cuts to our pay.
On retirement a gratuity payment of around €200,000 was payed tax free to members, they now want to tax this which has seen a large number retire early to avoid loosing out on this payment. This has resulted in numbers falling dramatically and rank structures missing which causes its own problems.
Under our sworn service to the state we can not be members of unions or strike for better conditions so this makes us an easy target for cutbacks.

[FN21]

Hi Garda!  Welcome to the forums!

And I thought that the UK government was treating US badly!  I really feel for you all.  We too, are legally forbidden membership of trade unions or the right to strike and the Government certainly takes advantage of this, though fortunately not to the extent that your Government has!

[spud]

this government has let us down badly on pay, they have just played games with the figures saying we earn more than we did before, maybe our wages have increased, but we used to get a house or single quarters OR an rent allowance, that has all gone, our wages went up a bit over the last 10 years but nowhere near enough to make up for the rent allowance or police quarters etc.  they can twist words, but at the end of the day they don't have trouble recruiting so they don't care...

[FN21]

That's what it comes down to at the end of the day.  We in the UK are lucky in our pay position at the moment thanks to the good treatment of the Police by Margaret thatcher's Government, she was responsible for implementing huge pay rises when she came to power to try and keep the Police on side and improve recruitment and retention.  Unfortunately we seem to be going full circle and are again being taken for granted.