Police officers have accepted a pay rise from Government effectively giving them what they were demanding before the dispute was sent to arbitration.

Bermuda Police Association (BPA) had demanded a seven percent increase for each of the last three years from Government.

They have now reached agreement on a 5.8 percent one-off "uplift" on their original pay in October 2005, plus a five percent increase for each of the last three years. Their pay rise for the coming year will be five percent.

Police officers will also get the $350-a-month housing allowance they were asking for, backdated to October 2005.

Government will make the retroactive payments for the salary increases and housing allowance in three instalments over the next seven months.

The agreement between the two sides partially ends a three-year dispute between the Government and the BPA which eventually went to arbitrators, the Permanent Police Tribunal.

The tribunal made an award in June this year which Government disagreed with and planned to challenge in court.

Following lengthy negotiations, the pay increase issue is now resolved, as is the matter of whether Police officers' legal expenses should be paid. Government has agreed to pay expenses in any circumstances where an officer requires legal counsel for an incident arising from the execution of their duties which would be dealt with by the courts.

Legal expenses will not be paid for matters of internal discipline, employment contract issues or civil litigation. Members of the BPA unanimously accepted the new terms regarding wages and housing subsidies and legal expenses at a special general meeting on Tuesday.

Labour Minister David Burch declined to comment. Alan Dunch, the BPA's lawyer, said the association wanted to avoid the need for protracted judicial proceedings. "In essence, the agreement that has been reached preserves the substance of the award on both issues

"The integrity of the award is preserved in the sense that the financial benefits provided by the award remain the same. The only difference is that the components of the financial benefits have been rejigged a little bit.

"As a result of that, agreement was reached to allow the Government to pay the lump sum of back pay over a period of time."

A final sticking point between the Government and the BPA over what is known as the Combined Allowance – the ten percent of Police officers' wage packets deemed not to be salary and therefore not pensionable – could still end up in Supreme Court.

Mr. Dunch said: "The issue of Combined Allowance remains outstanding and while discussions continue in relation to that issue, if those discussions don't bear fruit then that issue will still be dealt with in the context of a judicial review."

He added: "It's the BPA's hope that we will be able to resolve that as well."

The BPA, which has about 400 members, wants the Combined Allowance to be treated as part of an officer's salary so the ten percent becomes part of their pension. The Permanent Police Tribunal agreed that it should be treated as such. Government claims the tribunal exceeded its jurisdiction in coming to that conclusion. Inspector Darrin Simons, the BPA's lead negotiator, said: "The message from the BPA is that it's in the hands of the court."