For once, I feel sorry for the police. All that brown-nosing, all that arse-kissing, all those journalists office's obediently raided and electoral crimes obligingly ignored, and what do they get in return? Threats of 20% pay cuts and the introduction of performance pay:
Police want to introduce performance pay and have told the police union some officers are overpaid by up to 20 per cent.So much for "protecting frontline services". The police are about as frontline as it gets, and National is stirring up major industrial action there (and while police are forbidden to strike, there are other things they can do to make their displeasure known. Refusing overtime, for example). As for performance pay, it would create perverse incentives for teachers, but its absolutely toxic for police. Or do we really want police issuing tickets, conducting searches "for drugs", and arresting people just to make quota - or stitching people up to close cases quickly and get their bonus? For people who believe that its all about incentives, National really are surprisingly blind about the incentives they want to create. But then, for them the incentives are secondary; its really just about cutting costs.Rank-based and general salary increases would be scrapped and performance-based pay introduced.
[...]
In a letter obtained by Labour, association president Greg O'Connor said Police considered officers in bands A to D, as well as constables, were overpaid by as much as 20 per cent.
Police had funding for a three-year term and were offering lump sums and general adjustments to buy conditions off existing members, he warned.
Police also wanted to redefine remuneration structures so the majority of officers were restricted on about the middle of the proposed pay bands.