Police in medals protest over blocked retirement plans
Angry officers have handed back their police service medals after being blocked from taking early retirement in Northern Ireland, it was revealed today.
With up to 300 threatening legal action against Chief Constable Hugh Orde, the special awards and recognition of their work during the worst of the violence were returned in protest.
Sources close to one veteran officer who handed over his medal said: “This was done in disgust at the way they have been treated.”
Under the Patten blueprint for overhauling the old Royal Ulster Constabulary, hundreds of men and women have been able to take severance packages and quit the force.
But furious officers who do not qualify under the age plus service points system – despite joining the police before many of those now taking retirement - have decided to go to the US police chief who is monitoring reforms.
RUC George Cross Service Medals and Long Service and Good Conduct Medals were given to Oversight Commissioner Tom Constantine.
A senior Special Branch man and a long-serving uniformed officer both handed in their awards and lodged an official complaint during a meeting with Mr Constantine’s No 2 in Belfast on Monday.
It is believed more of their colleagues plan similar protests.
The officers claim the voluntary severance scheme, which is calculated on officers’ age and the number of years in the force, is unfair.
Colleagues who joined years after some of those refused access to the retirement programme have been able to leave because they were older when they started.
One of those leading the protests has been at the scene of some of the worst terrorist atrocities since he joined the police 28 years ago.
He was the first policeman on the scene of the IRA bomb massacre in Warrenpoint, Co Down, in 1979 when 18 British soldiers were murdered.
Close friends claim he and his colleagues feel let down by political leaders and their Police Federation representatives.
“Their service is not being recognised by the authorities under the severance arrangements so they have gone to the man overseeing Patten’s implementation,” one said.
“It’s tragic that it has come to this for these men and women who have worked in the most dangerous policing environment in the western world.”
Around 300 officers affected by the rules are now poised to launch a legal challenge to the severance system on age discrimination grounds.
They claim legislation designed to ensure equality of opportunity has been ignored.
If an independent review ordered by the Northern Ireland Office and carried out by a firm of management consultants does not satisfy them, legal papers will be served on the chief constable, one warned.
Officers have also called for an internal Equality Impact Assessment into their case, which was carried out by police chiefs in Belfast, to be made public.
But a Police Federation spokesman claimed the court action should not go forward.
He added: “We have taken legal advice and we are satisfied that we made the right decision.”
