Shropshire police staff to take part in 24-hour strike over one per cent pay offer

Unison members working for police forces in England and Wales voted yes to carrying out industrial action on December 19.

The 24-hour strike will affect 999 call takers, police community support officers, scene of crime officers, fingerprint experts, financial investigators, detention officers, crime reduction officers, crime analysts, inquiry desk officers, trainers and criminal justice clerks.

A wide range of operational and organisational support roles will also be affected.

Almost 60 per cent per cent of members across England and Wales called for full strike action, while eight out of 10 members balloted said they were prepared to take part in action short of strike action.

Charlie Sarell, regional organiser for Police Staff, which covers West Mercia, said the union decided to take action after the Government refused to budge on its one per cent pay offer.

He said: "These results send a clear message that after two years of pay freeze and last year's below-inflation pay rise, police staff have had enough.

"They are now ready to take industrial action over pay. We are calling on the police employers to return to the negotiating table to improve the current pay offer."

The number of votes cast across England and Wales were 7,436, with 4,320 in favour of a strike and 2,931 against.

There were also 185 spoiled papers.

Mr Sarell said police staff were anxious about a drop in pay in real terms while their workload was increasing due to staff cuts.

"The dispute at the moment is just about pay but we're also worried about potential changes to allowances, which could also affect pay.

"Police staff are doing an incredibly good job despite suffering through the austerity.

"We have been trying to negotiate since the summer but government will not budge.

"We all hear these stories from George Osborne about economic recovery but we're not seeing any of it."

Mr Sarell said if a major incident occurred the strike would be called off but, he added, it was likely to last 24 hours.

West Mercia Police was unavailable for comment as the Star went to press.