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Know Your Rights
Part Time Working Part Time Working is governed by Police Regulations, a number of other regulations and also Home Office Guidance. Both the staff member and the manager should start any negotiations from a well informed and flexible position. Any other position from either the manager or staff member will cause significant difficulties. The following advice is essentially advice on remuneration and has been interpreted based on long standing Police Federation advice in this area. Officers who work part time are paid at an hourly rate pro rata to the salary they would receive if they were full time. The pay scale, position on the pay scale, and the annual leave entitlement are still governed by their length of service. I have used an officer working 32 hours per week as an example. Clearly there are many other amounts of hours per week that could be worked. An officer working 32 hours average per week would be entitled to 80% of the annual leave entitlement of an officer working 40 hours per week with the same level of service. Similar rules apply to housing or rent allowances where the officer qualifies. If the 32 hours per week officer worked an extra 7 hours per week, the compensation for those 7 hours is paid or taken as time at the flat rate of plain time and not the enhanced rate. However there is no loss of 30 minutes at this point. If the officer were to work above 40 hours in that week then the enhanced time and a third rate would kick in after 40 hours, and the officer would be liable for the unplanned 30 minute penalty after 40 hours if the overtime from that point had been uninformed at the start of the tour of duty. Part time officers have the same rights as full time officers when it comes to rest day cancellation. The 15 day notice period is the same as is the 4 day reallocation period, and the compensation rates for less than 15 day cancellations are the same as full time officers. In addition to rest days, duty days and public holidays, an officer who works part time is likely to have an additional type of day in their duty roster and these are called 'free days'. A free day is when it has been agreed that the officer will not work. All officers are entitled to two rest days per week. Free days can be cancelled just like rest days but the compensation rates are different depending on the reason for cancellation.
All officers are entitled to 8 hours paid leave on a public holiday so an officer working 32 hours per week would be entitled to (80%) 6.4 paid leave hours each public holiday. Where a public holiday falls on a 'free day' the officer is entitled to the pro rate public holiday leave ie 6.4 hours in the above example. If the 32 hour officer was rostered as part of their rota to work an 8 hour shift on a public holiday but the officer took the day off, then the officer would owe the force 1.6 hours time back. The time could be worked as additional hours in their shift pattern such as adding the 1.6 hours onto a tour of duty - but please ensure it is recorded on DMS. Part time working is governed by Police Regulations and Determinations, but in addition to that, Home Office Guidance on Flexible Working in the Police Service should also be taken into account. The Home Office expect their guidance to be adhered to and the guidance has been relied upon both by sides in litigation. Last but not least the Part-Time Workers (prevention of less favourable treatment) Regulations 2000, are employment law but apply to the police service. Managers would do well to read the Regulations lest they fall foul of a 21 day request under the Regulations. I hope to comment more on this area in future information. All information so far in the series has been placed on the below website.
John Ainsworth
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