Civilian police staff to have pay cut by up to 15%

A long and painful process has come to end today for police staff, but for some that doesn't mean the agony is over. 363 civilian staff received letters today telling them their salaries will be cut, and for more than 130, it'll go down by at least 15%.

In some cases it could be more than 25% - a potential loss of thousands of pounds each year.

This follows a rather protratced pay review aiming to even out salaries.

The force has 2225 civilian staff, of those 28% are getting a pay rise. 55% will stay on the same pay and 16 % percent, or 363 people, will get a pay cut. This all comes at a time when the force is trying to save tens of millions of pounds because of Government budget cuts.

Bill Stevens from the GMB Union says people are already finding it tough.

One of the reasons this pay review has taken so long is because of the heavily criticised pay review that started in 2005.

Hundreds of staff walked out in protest at the process that was later found to be poorly managed and implemented with failures going right to the most senior levels within the force.

The chief constable at the time Maria Wallis took early retirement. This time the force says it has aimed to be more transparent about the process.

Today's Chief Constable say the policy is in the best interest of all staff, and is a reaction to Government cuts.