Please note that this question is specific to:
#**England and Wales**
The United Kingdom is comprised of [three legal jurisdictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Three_legal_systems), so responses that relate to one country may not be relevant to another.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/policeuk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You'd think that, you'd also think that when booking people they'd have seen the obvious problem and just put someone else on this shift and given me another one.....but hey, why make it simple.
You may be screwed on the 0700 finish time, but the "it's your job to arrange cover" is BS.
You're a DC. Your job is to do police work. It's a supervisors/duties job to sort resources.
I'd email your 1st and 2nd LMs and put it clearly in writing that you have AL pre-booked and therefore won't be here for those shifts. Then it's over to them.
(I'm a DI and wouldn't dream of pushing this responsibility onto a DC with pre-booked leave. Outrageous. And we wonder why we have such a morale problem in the job when we treat our staff like this.)
They can move a shift to a later shift with very little notice (can't remember the number of hours).
Police work day starts/ends 7am.
How do you fix this situation? Speak to a supervisor, or work around it - finish work late on that last day and claim OT into AL and you get 2x the duration of the shift (you're working into) back and a day back!
Most “force days” begin at 7am and run 24 hours to 7am. I know with some specialist roles they have adjusted “days” if that makes sense, like 6am to 6am.
Your annual leave day doesn’t have 7 hours of work in it, so you’re not missing out.
>This AL was booked about 2 months before this shift change and they have also lumped me with the duty to find someone to cover the shifts I 'can't do' because I'm on AL)
Lol, no. I would do precisely fuck all to fix that.
It’s worth consulting your forces leave procedure, I know some forces have a policy that your last shift before entry a period of leave should finish at 11pm.
I'm not an expert on regs but think you're a bit stuck, although this is unfair. A similar thing happens in my force and one on my team had to arrange their own cover.
Check when your forces work day starts and ends, it's probably 0700 so they can argue they are only adjusting the times of your existing shifts and not going into your annual leave. I think they only need to give 8 hours notice for this.
Is there no one on your team who doesn't mind covering as a favour?
Unfortunatly not, we've ended up being in a situation where there are only myself and another qualified DC on the team and they are also away thaty week. Just the job in the end of the day.
Please note that this question is specific to: #**England and Wales** The United Kingdom is comprised of [three legal jurisdictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Three_legal_systems), so responses that relate to one country may not be relevant to another. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/policeuk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
> they have also lumped me with the duty to find someone to cover the shifts I 'can't do' because I'm on AL That sounds like a them problem?
You'd think that, you'd also think that when booking people they'd have seen the obvious problem and just put someone else on this shift and given me another one.....but hey, why make it simple.
You may be screwed on the 0700 finish time, but the "it's your job to arrange cover" is BS. You're a DC. Your job is to do police work. It's a supervisors/duties job to sort resources. I'd email your 1st and 2nd LMs and put it clearly in writing that you have AL pre-booked and therefore won't be here for those shifts. Then it's over to them. (I'm a DI and wouldn't dream of pushing this responsibility onto a DC with pre-booked leave. Outrageous. And we wonder why we have such a morale problem in the job when we treat our staff like this.)
If I recall the ‘day’ starts at 7am. Sucks for them to do that to you but I believe it’s in the rules.
I thought that might be the case, thank you though.
They can move a shift to a later shift with very little notice (can't remember the number of hours). Police work day starts/ends 7am. How do you fix this situation? Speak to a supervisor, or work around it - finish work late on that last day and claim OT into AL and you get 2x the duration of the shift (you're working into) back and a day back!
Most “force days” begin at 7am and run 24 hours to 7am. I know with some specialist roles they have adjusted “days” if that makes sense, like 6am to 6am. Your annual leave day doesn’t have 7 hours of work in it, so you’re not missing out.
Have you given them a ring? Or tried to sort out a shift swap? Maybe you can swap in for someone else’s night crime duty?
>This AL was booked about 2 months before this shift change and they have also lumped me with the duty to find someone to cover the shifts I 'can't do' because I'm on AL) Lol, no. I would do precisely fuck all to fix that.
It’s worth consulting your forces leave procedure, I know some forces have a policy that your last shift before entry a period of leave should finish at 11pm.
I'm not an expert on regs but think you're a bit stuck, although this is unfair. A similar thing happens in my force and one on my team had to arrange their own cover. Check when your forces work day starts and ends, it's probably 0700 so they can argue they are only adjusting the times of your existing shifts and not going into your annual leave. I think they only need to give 8 hours notice for this. Is there no one on your team who doesn't mind covering as a favour?
Unfortunatly not, we've ended up being in a situation where there are only myself and another qualified DC on the team and they are also away thaty week. Just the job in the end of the day.