Commissioner of Police Verne Garde has announced that the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) will launch a pilot project aimed at reducing long working hours for officers by implementing eight-hour shifts.
The project, which was commissioned last week, will be tested at the Dennery and Richfond Police Stations. Officers assigned to these stations will work eight-hour shifts before being relieved, replacing the traditionally extended hours that were necessary due to staffing shortages.
Commissioner Garde explained that the initiative is part of a broader effort to improve time management and scheduling within the RSLPF alongside an ongoing recruitment drive.
“As you know, the numbers that we have did not afford us the opportunity to do that in the past, but now that we are aggressively having the recruitment, the numbers are starting to work with the mathematical equation that we have for us to augment the situation,” Commissioner Garde stated at a press conference on Tuesday.
However, he acknowledged that certain specialised units, such as the Marine Unit, may still require flexible scheduling and extended working hours due to operational demands. In such cases, he assured that duty allowances would continue to compensate officers for their additional hours.
Speaking on the efforts to address staffing shortages, Commissioner Garde noted that 62 special police constables are currently undergoing training at the Police Academy. In addition, 81 candidates are being vetted for recruitment into the regular corps, with another 80 officers expected to be recruited afterward. Following this, an additional 41 positions will be filled.
“So there are many things being done to try to ameliorate the situation with officers working long hours,” Garde said.
Pressed about overtime pay for officers who work extended hours, he reiterated that they receive the $525 monthly duty allowance in lieu of overtime payments, in keeping with a collective bargaining agreement.
“Many years ago, the officers, through the various [welfare associations] agreed that what would suffice for overtime would have been the duty allowance. So we have that as an article in our collective agreement,” the police commissioner insisted.
He explained that the allowance is paid regardless of whether an officer works overtime.
