To All Members
Circular 06/21
This circular is to advise members that today the DPF has received a letter from the Chief Constable, informing us that he is withdrawing from the agreed Alternative Dispute Resolution Process (ADR) which was constituted to determine the merits of a universal shift pattern and indeed is withdrawing his proposal around a new shift pattern in full.
The correspondence indicates that the Chief Constable now wishes to engage external experts to review the position on shift patterns and report back to the Force.
We will of course respond to this letter after reviewing its contents with our legal advisors and publish our response for all of our members to see.
It is clear from the letter we have received, that the Force felt it would be unable to adduce sufficient evidence in the ADR process to show why a uniform shift pattern is necessary. This is a point we have made repeatedly throughout the process. In his correspondence the Chief appears to blame the DPF for its approach in opposing these proposals. Any criticism of the DPF, if that is what was intended is entirely unjustified. All we have asked the Force to do is make its case to demonstrate why this proposal was required when it would have such a profound impact on the lives of many of our members.
This short circular is published to inform you of this recent development. We will provide a more detailed circular to you shortly once we have responded to the Chief Constable and the MoD Chief Operating Officer.
DPF HQ
