After more than a month of intense bargaining, it’s a done deal.

NZ Police Association, Te Aka Hāpai members ratified a new, two-year Police Employees’ Collective Employment Agreement (CEA) on June 27 – voting 83% in favour of accepting its terms of settlement. 

Highlights include a $4000 one-off superable, gross lump sum (pro-rated for part-time employees) to be paid in mid-July to all employees party to the CEA and a 1% increase to all pay and allowance rates from July 1, 2026.

“We were proud to fight off many pages of ‘clawbacks’ and attacks on existing provisions that were tabled by Police early in our talks,” says Erin Polaczuk, the association’s employment relations manager. 

“The hostile bargaining environment reflected restricted public sector spending, a struggling economy and a Government actively seeking to reduce worker rights. The aim was to maintain our ground and push forward where we could,” she says. 

“Unfortunately, one notable provision we were not able to bring in as a core provision of the CEA was the time-bound health check. This had expired and we could not get its continuation across the line, despite its obvious benefits to employees and to the employer.”

Key amendments to the CEA include:

• Paid overtime and interruptions: Bands G-J will be entitled to overtime at T1.5 from November 8, 2025. Also, any interruption of more than 15 minutes while an employee is not on shift will be recompensed at the relevant overtime rate.
• Employee Sick Leave Bank and sickness: The sick leave bank will be funded by Police from 2026, while the obligation for a medical certificate after five days of sick leave is loosened. Medical appointments will not see a reduction to sick leave balances.
• Core Policing Knowledge exam: The grant for this exam is now available to employees.
• Re-banding: A 4% minimum increase in remuneration will apply for any re-banding.
• New allowance: A custodial Authorised Officer field training allowance will be available from November 8, 2025.
• Options to receive TOIL: These will mirror the Constabulary CEA from November 8, 2025
• Allowances adjusted to match Constabulary CEA include: Standby; personal expenses on transfer; refund of transfer expenses and transfer grants; overtime and/or duty away from normal workplace meal expenses; shift worker’s meal; travelling and relieving expenses; short notice shift change. These are all adjusted upward.
• Clauses removed include: Tool allowance for engineering technicians (after buy-out of eligible claimants); dirty work allowance; tool allowance for tradespeople; work in wet places or arduous conditions.
• Wellness Advisers: Incidentals and standby allowances are separated for Wellness Advisers. 

In 2022, the association made a commitment to join a remuneration design group to explore reducing the number of steps in the Constabulary CEA salary banding. An outcome of the Police Employee CEA settlement is to include the banding of this CEA in that process.

Backbone, not backroom

Because the Employee CEA bargaining could have resulted in industrial action, the association had prepared to campaign around the false division being made by politicians and employers around “frontline” and “backroom”, Erin says. 

“We are also aware that the links between the Employee CEA and Constabulary CEA are being lost because of  bargaining taking place separately, and the impact this has on roles that are ‘dual banded’. We remain concerned about this and raised this frequently with the employer,” she says.

“We will continue to advocate that employees are treated as the backbone, not dismissed as backroom or as being in less-important roles. 

“Please continue to wear your lanyard, and we will continue to look for ways to lift the profile and status of Police employee members,” she says.

• The terms of settlement in the deal and frequently asked questions are available once you have logged into policeassn.org.nz.