Month: June 2023

We are extremely pleased announce that James Austin HETHERINGTON, known as Austin has been awarded a Medallists of the Order of the British Empire (BEM) in HM King’s first Birthday Honors List.

Austin was the equivalent of IODPA in Northern Ireland working tirelessly to seek justice for police officers that had been injured on duty. He spent many years and expended a great deal of his time and energy supporting officers and pensioners before finally retiring approximately 6 months ago

Members of IODPA had the great pleasure of travelling to Northern Ireland in 2017 where Austin and some of his members graciously looked after us.

We cannot think of a more deserving person for this great honor, well done Austin!

The Police Federation of England & Wales victimised and discriminated against officers involved in police pension claims, tribunal finds.

The Police Federation of England & Wales (PFEW) discriminated against and victimised members who previously made claims against the Government after being moved onto pension schemes with reduced benefits, a tribunal has ruled.

The case centered around the refusal of the federation to challenge the Government over their introduction of the Police Pension Regulations 2015 which was subsequently found to be unlawful on the basis of age discrimination.

After reviewing the PFEW’s decisions and communications regarding the police pensions claims, the East London Employment tribunal found:

• The PFEW understood from the outset that that there was a ‘possibility’ of age discrimination;
• Its messaging was ‘unfailingly supportive’ of the transitional provisions;
• It did not provide its members with a ‘rounded understanding’ of the ‘likely outcomes’; instead it provided a skewed and misleading narrative, emphasising unlikely outcomes, with the overriding objective of protecting the transitional provisions;
• General Secretary Ian Rennie had no training in equalities law, for the majority of the time, there was no one who was responsible for equalities issues at its head offices, and there was no evidence that the equalities sub-committee was tasked with examining issues relating to pensions or the PPC;
• There was no consultation of the membership at large, and little evidence that the bodies charged with deciding/reviewing policy were consulted in a meaningful way;
• Consideration was not given as to whether there was any less discriminatory way of redesigning the scheme so as to be fairer to younger officers.

Read more at Leigh Day – https://www.leighday.co.uk/news/news/2023-news/police-federation-of-england-wales-victimised-and-discriminated-against-officers-involved-in-police-pension-claims-tribunal-finds/