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WE WON'T COP IT: Images from the Queensland Police Union
THE Queensland Police Union will today launch the first phase of a hard-hitting advertising campaign for a better pay rise for police, attacking the "insulting" 2.5 per cent offered by the State Government.
Union president Ian Leavers says police, who are regularly attacked and spat on, won't cop the low pay increase, while other public servants receive a 4.5 pay rise this year and 8 per cent over two years.
"This is a slap in the face for all decent hard-working police who risk their lives daily keeping Queenslanders safe," Mr Leavers said.
He said the Bligh Government had now failed to deliver a new police enterprise bargaining agreement, with the current agreement having expired on June 30.
The union now will sit down with Premier Anna Bligh begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting on July 30 to thrash out a better deal for more than 10,000 police officers.
In the television and radio ads, which highlight the often difficult and stressful job of police, Mr Leavers says officers see the worst of human behavior on a daily basis.
In another ad, Mr Leavers says police are spat on, bashed, at times shot at and become the victims of crime.
Last year, teachers, nurses and firefighters reached enterprise bargaining agreements with the State Government, accepting pay increases of 12.5 per cent over three years, starting with 4.5 per cent this year.
The wage deal also applied to Crime and Misconduct Commission staff, Mr Leavers said.
"It shows the double standard, when CMC staff get the 4.5 per cent wage increase, yet the Government only offers police 2.5 per cent."
The ad campaign comes as union lawyers have gone to court to try to stop Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson having to decide on CMC recommended disciplinary action against police involved in the Palm Island death-in-custody investigation.
"I fully support other public servants getting their pay rise of 4.5 per cent, yet it's odd the Bligh Government gave them their pay rise when the biggest threat they'll ever face is a paper cut," Mr Leavers said.
He said the 2.5 per cent a year increase for three years for police was even below the cost of living.
Recent police figures show 50 officers a week are being spat on, punched, kicked and assaulted with more than 2700 officers assaulted across Queensland last year.
On Friday, a teenage girl was jailed for repeatedly spitting on an officer and yesterday a man, 18, was charged with serious assault for spitting at a city officer.
Mr Leavers said: "When you get spat on by an offender, who very well could have been using drugs, you need to get a disease test order to make sure you're not infected.
"How do you explain to your three-year-old child that you can't show them affection, you can't give them a kiss because you might have hepatitis or HIV?"