And while those former BTL workers deal with no longer having a job, the police association is speaking out against the proposed salary cuts. They wrote a letter to the Minister of Home Affairs, Kareem Musa, saying that most officers have loans and mortgages on top of having to travel and purchase food every day. According to the release, a 10% cut would leave the average officer with only $1800 per month, which is unsustainable for most of them.
The association says that police officers are frontline workers and that they place their lives at risk every day. As such, it will be difficult to keep officers motivated after the cuts are implemented and they will not perform their duties diligently, as the release says.
The association then goes on to list other cost saving measures that the government could implement before resorting to salary cuts such as parking government vehicle on weekends and after working hours.
They ended the release by saying if the salary cuts and increment freezes are absolutely necessary, then the board of the association is willing to meeting with the minister to, quote, "discuss alternative solutions to aid police officer to cope with their financial strains." End quote.
