James691

Hello there,

First time poster for this and should do a slight introduction I feel. My name is James and I am 36 year old fire arms officer. I have been in the job a while now and have a rather good cv for police, prison and RAF service.

I am looking for advice on getting into ANY Aussie police service and I was told, but cannot find, that I can get a direct transfer to perm resi' on this, or has that stopped?

Any advice would be great, British Bobbies already out there would be very good to hear from you please.

Thanks in advance....am sick of this rain now.

James

ann m

PM sent - but you need to have made three posts to be able to receive and send private messages - so go and write some rubbish on this or another thread - when you've made your 3 posts, bob's your wotsit oh, and welcome to BE !

edit - seems you've made 4 posts anyway ..... incoming ....

James691

Thanks Ann!

Much appreciated and will have a look at that!

James

TZracer

Hi James,

Well I'm with SAPOL (South Australia Police) and from personal experience I would possibly advise you to steer clear of them, I'm considering moving on myself, currently discussing it with the family. Now that's I suppose a personal thing, but at present the local Government are implementing massive changes to our Workers injury legislation (Work Cover as it's known) Basically if you are injured and it's serious enough to be off for over 13 weeks your pay drops to 80%, then if they can't get you back to work in 2.5 years you lose everything-no pay at all. Now that sounds like a long time, but I know of a few people that have been off that long, one had a major MVA and suffered serious life threatening injuries. He was considered unfit for operationally duty, so they placed him in a non operational role, then that position he was filling was then made operational so he was removed and never returned to duty at all. SAPOL used to have numerous non operational roles that no longer exist, so if you get injured you will be shafted! They are going to bring in a panel of Doctors from outside of South Australia who will look at your case, they will meet in a secret location and the decision these Doctors, who have never examined you will make a final decision about your future, you can NOT appeal that decision either nor can you be represented by Solicitors in regards to this panel!!! You will have NO RIGHTS. Like most police, I've been injured and had huge problems with SAPOL, lucky for me my Injury was under the current work cover system. Personal opinion from my experience is SAPOL just consider injured employees as a disposable commodity. Break a few of us, get rid of them and bring some more over.
Say for instance you contract HIV, that takes sometimes a few years to show, if it's over the 2.5 year period, sorry me old china, your on your own, you can't work with the public because of it and you no longer get paid, you can't get other work whilst you are employed even if you don't get paid anymore, I can see so many people leaving the emergency services here when the laws come into place, they have warned the Government but they state it's going ahead. The other States here in Oz are similar with legislation, but the main difference is in other States, you can sue your employer for the injury and at least retire, in South Australia you won't have that ability to take legal action so you end up injured/sick and broke!!
In saying all that, SAPOL and WAPOL have taken a break from overseas recruiting until further notice, I have no idea why as SAPOL needs a whole lot more to take the load of the rest of us and reduce burnout.
Anyway I shall get off my soapbox, I just thought it's food for thought, remember this: most (large percentage) that have come to SAPOL from the UK in the past 4 years have gone, some went home, others moved to other Police Forces and some stayed in Oz in other occupations. The main reason is that SAPOL only need us to fill vacant uniform patrol spots, some were lucky to be in the right place at the right time to move out of patrols, but the majority who remained with SAPOL are still working patrols.
James, don't waste that experience here, you, like all of us regardless of experience end up just filling vacant spots in uniform patrols, and that's all they want.

James691

Thanks Man,

Am the fed rep at our place also! I was gutted about getting the shaft on the pay rise but you are saying that they want us to take on the (debatable) most dangerous occupation there is but when (not if) you get bust up then thanks and take care! Are you serious???

Okay, that's that option out the window then! Thanks again and I will find this legi' and pass it on to the others in the fed.

James 691

TZracer

Good on you James, Yeah I'm serious about the new changes to our Work Cover legislation, if you log on to the Adelaide Advertiser newspaper or Unions South Australia you will read more about it, it's causing major issues here as it's a Labor Government doing it, not a Conservative Govt. (Tory) The major problem is not only do we lose everything after 2.5 years, but the bast&^* are gonna make it all retrospective, so if you have a pre existing injury like me you are stuffed if you need anymore time off after that 2.5 years from injury date or maybe I need surgery etc. We have Private Health here, but I've phoned them and as it's a pre existing work related injury, the Private Health companies won't cover any medical expenses.
When it comes in, I'm looking at getting out, or trying for a safer role, mabe driving a desk for the rest of my career. Trouble is I'm gonna have to fight the other four thousand coppers doing the same. We have discussed it between ourselves and needless to say we aren't going to risk injury at all anymore. That as you know is hard, unless you can score a desk job off a civilian employee. Since I've been here I've been clobbered a few times - one major injury sustained, spat on numerous times, once by an AIDS sufferer and a couple of other little things.
I have no idea what our Association are planning to do, hopefully they will go to the National Federation about it.
It's just going to mean people are going say nothing and have to work with the injury and risk re injury or putting your partners at risk working whilst unfit.
I'd hate to see others stuff up a career, as far as I'm concerned mine is stuffed now when the Legislation comes in (in the next couple of weeks I think) as my injury re occurs every now and then, so if I need time off after the 2.5 years I just won't get paid for it and will have to pay to see the Doctor for the privilege of getting hurt on duty.
Here in South Australia they have Volunteer Fire fighters and Paramedics, these guys and girls get hurt often too and like Specials, they have a day job and do it for free in their spare time. Most of them will leave as they won't risk injury either, as in the past they were covered in their day job if injured as a volunteer, but won't soon, they could lose the safety net in both jobs...can't blame them.
I'm amazed about bringing the Legislation in retrospectively as at times there have been calls to change criminal laws here, mainly regarding organised crime involving Motorcycle gangs and Drug gangs, but they won't make those laws retrospective as the same politicians state that those Villains have rights!!
Take care James and be safe.
Well James as Fed Rep I hope you can pass this on to anybody interested. Australia is a great Country, it's dry, the sky is blue, not grey the public are friendly (except the ones we deal with-same all over the world though mate) and the beaches are fantastic, but South Australia won't be a place to work in a risky occupation that's for sure.

TZracer

Hi again James, Have a look at www. saunions.org.au thats the union web site, it explains it all. One thing is they have now agreed to 90% of wages rather than 80% - Still coming over here with a pay cut, losing 10% hurts !! but not as much as 100% would though after 2.5 years.
Oh yeah, like all injuries here are kept on file with SAPOL....subsequently if you leave the Job and try to get another job, your potential new employer will find out about the injury history and they don't want to take on a pre existing injured worker needless to say. I can say that as I rang another Police Service recruiter and when I made mention of my sometimes re occurring injury, he may as well told me to forget it in a polite way.
So James and all you others, tread carefully considering coming down under.
take care James

James691

Hi again,

I had a look and I am not coming over for the police, is not so much the pay cut and so on. It's a moral thing and I have no respect for a government that has respect for those that enforce their policy with flesh then left to rot if that flesh is damaged.

It is bad enough here with the contempt that the government show us but to add injury to insult is just too much for me to even think about serving in those conditions.

Thanks anyway and a letter has been posted in the NPF file for all members to know about this.

I never liked humans being part of the supply and demand structure, smells to much like slavery to me.

James691

TZracer

Good on you James, I'm glad you read about it and that is a fantastic idea sending a letter to the NPF file, it's absolutely disgraceful what they are planning James, this Government is at present on a recruiting drive now for all other experienced professionals in the UK. It was on TV here the other week with some woman wandering around London streets with a 'sandwich board' knocking the UK, it read something like 'Why live in filthy Hackney London when you can live in beautiful Hackney Adelaide' something like that anyway. I remember because it caused a small political storm with our Government and GLA. I mean it's ok to try to get more skilled migrants, but hey don't rubbish the UK trying to do it!
They had other sandwich boards about London Traffic etc compared to Adelaide, I reckon Adelaide traffic is worse! it takes me 1 hour and 30 minutes to travel 28 miles!

The thing is what gets up my nose about it all is that the Premier (head of State Govt.) is an ex Kent boy, Mike Rann, he's the one screwing us with workers compensation and he's the one rubbishing his own previous Country!
As I said, they need Coppers here and fast, when you graduate from the bridging course at the SAPOL Academy (Training school), you find your the senior patrol officer usually as the person you are partnered with is on probation as well, but with no previous experience. It's a bloody joke James and to add to that you are on crappy pay taking the lead role which is or was once done by Senior Constables here.

I was furious that they didn't take into consideration the nature of some professions, Police, Fire, Prisons, paramedics etc. as we are the ones with the most claims due to the very nature of our work. The scumbags (chavs)here are the same, they have no hesitation in doing ya if they think they can get away with it, as unlike London we don't have too many cameras around the City and they know it. Nor do we have too many patrols to back you up, I was solo one night and couldn't get one car to back me up, lucky I got some help by a passing security guard!

I've been told that SAPOL have had a few members commit suicide over workers compensation issues in the past and that's under the current system, so what's gonna happen with the new one.
Anyway James I could go on and on mate, like I said if the family give the nod, I might try for some other force, maybe even Canada, but like I said now I've been injured I may not have much luck with another transfer.

Take care mate and hope all goes well for you in your future, I just hope people on here have learnt from my experiences and information.
Take care out there.

TZracer

Oh yeah, All those still considering SAPOL, check out the South Australia Police Association (PASA) web site and click onto 'Police Journal online' the scroll down to 'LAST SHIFT' and read some of the comment's. This Journal there are another 4 ex pats that have resigned, only 3 mentioned they are ex pats, the other one didn't and there only the ones that have opted to put it into the Journal, some don't bother.

Check it out anyway, it's an essential read for those considering SAPOL.

It's a pity I didn't know any of the stuff about SAPOL such as the Police Journal etc when I moved to SAPOL.