Reduced time-table eliminated from police work

Members of the police force, mainly women constables, will no longer be allowed to work a reduced time-table, according to a recent circular issued to force members.

Officers who have had a reduced time-table approved for the current year may, however, continue working their chosen hours until it expires.

Members using the scheme complained that the decision would affect their plans and lifestyle.

Asked about the decision, a spokesman for the police force said he preferred not to comment.

In a circular last July, the Assistant Commissioner for strategy and planning, Lawrence Cauchi informed members that police personnel could no longer work reduced hours and therefore no further requests would be accepted or granted.

However, the circular adds, those police officers who are currently on a reduced time-table are to continue working their chosen hours until the expiration of the current approved one-year period.

Sources said 14 women PCs who worked reduced hours under the scheme got paid according to the hours they worked. There is also a policeman who takes care of his father, the sources added. The police force has around l,700 members. "This will now be stopped but commitments made while the scheme was in force would still have to be honoured. We planned family matters for the period covered by the scheme according to the income my wife and I would be earning - but now. . . . ," a corps member said.

Nearly all police force members who benefit from the scheme are married women who work on reduced hours particularly when they have children, in order to have more time to take care of them and earn extra money.

Under the scheme, corps members choose the hours they want to work. The scheme used to be run on a renewal basis each year for a maximum of nine years.

After the expiry of the approved period, the members concerned would be free to return to the corps on a full-time basis or leave.

Sources said that an alternative should be found so that women constables could continue taking care of their children while at the same time utilising the hours when their children were at school.

"The reason behind the decision was probably that with such irregular hours the police administration was finding it hard to assign personnel engaged on reduced time-table," the force member said.

He suggested that women making use of the scheme be seconded to government departments which offer reduced working hours. They would carry out work according to the grade which they occupied in the police force.

He suggested that the members would remain on the books of the police force and would be free to return when they no longer needed to work reduced hours.