Cops compress their working lives. Ask George Hamilton. He is 51. At the end of next week he will vacate his position as Chief Constable of the PSNI.Sir George, as recognised in the recent Honours List, will retire on full pension.
Even before the IRA’s 1994 ceasefire, the European Commission in Brussels and EU member states were developing a set of regulations that would guarantee a series of basic rights to workers in their place of employment. It was PSNI officers in Northern Ireland who rumbled that they might not be receiving their full entitlements as set out in the directive. Their argument centred around the overtime they would be expected to routinely work on top of their normal, scheduled hours.
There is a suggestion that the then Work and Pensions Secretary, Vince Cable, successfully rushed through legislation which limits the back-pay element to a maximum of two years liability. He was the Northern Ireland Minister for Employment and Learning in 2014. While the British government was rushing through legislation to put a two year cap on back pay, he opted to not follow suit in Northern Ireland.
But I'm sure I heard somewhere, the DUP don't want Northern Ireland treated any differently than the rest of Great Britain 🤔