Met police firearms

[Fedster + 1,307]

But data and Fed cast doubt over the claim.

AC Martin Hewitt

 

A massive backlog of cancelled rest days is not “the new normal” one of the Met’s most senior officers told politicians today.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt was asked at the London Assembly about the huge backlog of owed rest days, officially estimated to be just under 190,000.

He said that 2017 was an “extraordinary year” with three terror attacks and the Grenfell Fire, as well as a rise in violent crime which led to more crime scene guarding.

Labour’s Andrew Dismore asked him if the new violent crime taskforce was reliant on using officers on rest days.

AC Hewitt said: “I would be lying if I said we’re not under pressure because we’ve been under pressure now for a considerable period, with just the sheer tempo of operational activity that’s required, but to suggest that the work the taskforce is doing is reliant on cancelled rest days is not true and again I know there’s been stories around loads of leave being cancelled […]

"There are times when we need to do it because of the job we do but it’s not a routine thing.”

Mr Dismore said: “So that’s not the new normal?”

AC Hewitt replied: “No it certainly is not. It’s something we bear down on repeatedly.

“Our people need to get time off, they need to have time to defuse from what they’re doing at work it’s not sensible for us to burn people out.”

But the figures show the force has been operating with a huge backlog of rest days for years. Police Oracle revealed that in 2016 the Met owed officers 179,969 rest days, and a year earlier the Met Police Federation claimed there was 500,000 days owed – dating back to Olympics duties.

The staff association branch’s current chairman Ken Marsh told Police Oracle: “At the moment we’re sitting on about 200,000 cancelled rest days.

“I can’t see that going down any time soon. It’s all well and good saying it’s not the new normal but for example we have Donald Trump arriving on our shores soon which will need officers so they’ll cancel rest days as that’s what they do.

“If a major incident takes place next week and they need officers they will cancel rest days.

“I’m not criticising management, they haven’t got enough officers.”

He pointed out that officers who have earned the maximum holiday are entitled to 31 days annual leave plus bank holidays but that with boroughs allowing no more than 10 per cent of officers off at one time that it is mathematically impossible for everyone to take what they are owed.

“Then the Home Secretary says I’ve put another 1,000 officers on the streets of London, well you’ve actually called 1,000 officers’ rest days,” Mr Marsh added. “It’s increasing sickness, it’s increasing mental health issues.”

View On Police Oracle

[Hyphen + 693]

Playing it down, everything’s fine. The usual strategy from senior officers.

[MerseyLLB 8,426]

About £40 million quid owing in rest days.

The Met should pay up and clear the slate.

[HazRat 762]

56 minutes ago, MerseyLLB said:

About £40 million quid owing in rest days.

The Met should pay up and clear the slate.

That will never happen as it would be against regs.

If I have to cancel R/D’s for one of my team or they elect to work a R/D then the R/D gets reallocated there and then. The next problem that MPS officers will experience is that R/D’s cancelled now have a one year expiry date. Use it or lose it! That’s going to be interesting, although the outstanding figure will drop.

[jamieMET + 121]

33 minutes ago, HazRat said:

That will never happen as it would be against regs.

If I have to cancel R/D’s for one of my team or they elect to work a R/D then the R/D gets reallocated there and then. The next problem that MPS officers will experience is that R/D’s cancelled now have a one year expiry date. Use it or lose it! That’s going to be interesting, although the outstanding figure will drop.

Is this 1 year thing in place now or proposed? Never heard of that before

[HazRat 762]

3 minutes ago, jamieMET said:

Is this 1 year thing in place now or proposed? Never heard of that before

It’s in place now. All R/D’s cancelled within the last few months have an expiry date.

[Hyphen + 693]

Can the officer elect a day to take it on? If so then that’s fair.

What if the officer is denied leave requests to take the owed rest day due to shortages? If it gets to 12 months can they ask for it to be paid? It can’t just vanish.

[Reasonable Man + 1,231]

I know some Regs have changed since I was supervising cops but then it should have been when told to work a RD it was re-rostered, nothing in Regs to say the officer decides to when but the supervisor should allocate another day as a rest day. The reality was those days went 'on a card' or 'held in lieu' and the officer decided at some point in the future when to take it. It happened so frequently that most cops believed that was the Regulation. Federation didn't like the practice as it was unofficial and there was no protection for those days owed.
As it is now described none of those RDs should 'expire' as, say, RD is cancelled on 2nd Jan, it gets re-rosters to 10th Jan. That is then a rest day. If the officer is told to work on 10th that's a new re-allocation of a RD. 23rd Jan is the new RD, and that gets cancelled - and re-rostered to 2nd Feb.
It's not the case that the Jan 2 RD has not been taken for one month, it was taken 8 days later. Then a separate RD was taken 13 days later etc.
If cops go against Regs and don't ensure that their RDs are re-rostered then they run the risk of losing them.

[Mac7 808]

I’ve always been able to choose where re rostered rest days were put. They would be allocated randomly at first but changed at the request of the officer.

[Reasonable Man + 1,231]

I’ve always been able to choose where re rostered rest days were put. They would be allocated randomly at first but changed at the request of the officer.

That just sounds like the system (and Regs) working. The RD is re-rostered and so 'safe'. The officer make a request to swap a rest day and is allowed.
The risk is when someone says they will work the rest day and take it on some undetermined day in the future.

[MerseyLLB 8,426]

It's a reg anomaly though which (outside the Met) works in our favour. 

My RDILs get used to bump up my annual leave entitlement...most years recently it's worked out that I've had about 35/36 days of leave and RDILS. 

My rest days being rerostered doesn't help me...they're so late notice I can't do anything meaningful with them.

In my view...either put it in my pot and let me take it or pay me for it.

[Hyphen + 693]

2 minutes ago, MerseyLLB said:

It's a reg anomaly though which (outside the Met) works in our favour. 

My RDILs get used to bump up my annual leave entitlement...most years recently it's worked out that I've had about 35/36 days of leave and RDILS. 

My rest days being rerostered doesn't help me...they're so late notice I can't do anything meaningful with them.

In my view...either put it in my pot and let me take it or pay me for it.

This is how I’ve always known it which is why I was so curious around the suggestion of them just disappearing after 12 months. 

I agree, if they can’t be taken for whatever reason then it’s only fair that they are paid.

[jamieMET + 121]

On 09/06/2018 at 20:37, HazRat said:

It’s in place now. All R/D’s cancelled within the last few months have an expiry date.

Sorry for the dealu, but this is shocking news myself no anybody on my team was aware about

[Zulu 22 + 4,576]

Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt appears to be making very misleading statements. I believe that "Falsehood" is still a disciplinary offence.