Police officers have suffered a three-year "ordeal" over pay which ought to be swiftly resolved, the head of the Bermuda Public Services Union said last night.

BPSU general secretary Ed Ball spoke out in support of Bermuda Police Association (BPA) after his own union resolved a long-running salary battle with Government on Tuesday.

Civil servants have been granted a five percent increase by arbitrators for the final year of their three-year agreement with Government, after asking for 5.1 percent and originally being offered four percent.

Mr. Ball said:"The Bermuda Public Services Union is happy that there is now closure to the first ever arbitration between the Bermuda Government and the union that resulted in a new award of a five percent wage increase for 2007/2008 only.

"He added: "It is our hope that the Bermuda Police Association's award impasse is resolved soon so that our women and men in blue can also bring closure to their three-year ordeal."

The BPSU's pay dispute led union members to threaten a strike to shut down the Island earlier this year before agreeing to go to voluntary arbitration.

Government rejected the binding outcome of the arbitration as well as an award given to the BPA by the Permanent Police Tribunal a move which led thousands of angry workers to march on Parliament last week.

Bermuda Trade Union Congress accused Government of making "a mockery of the process of binding arbitration" and the possibility of a general strike loomed large.

The BPSU matter was resolved this week when the arbitration panel amended the award it had granted members taking away a refund of a one percent increase in pension payments but adding an extra one percent onto their pay rise. Government plans to seek a judicial review of the BPA issue.

Mr. Ball said arbitrators Cheryl-Ann Mapp, Anthony Joaquin and Jeffrey Elkinson acted fairly and professionally. He said the panel disagreed with Labour Minister David Burch's claim that they acted outside the law in their original award.

"The only way that any of the three parties can affirm who is right over any alleged breach of the terms or the 1981 (Superannuation) Act would be for the court to rule," said Mr. Ball. "Fortunately, there is no need to ask the court to adjudicate this question."

Mr. Ball also questioned a remark made by Sen. Burch on Wednesday that unions the world over were "focused on productivity, profit sharing, performance-based pay, educational allowances and bonuses as the means by which to enhance their members' bargaining power".

He said European unions, in particular, were abandoning support for performance-related pay because of a myriad of issues surrounding subjectivity and lack of fairness by managers in rating staff.

Shadow Labour Minister Michael Dunkley said yesterday the Opposition was pleased that Sen. Burch and Premier Ewart Brown who met with eight unions for bridge-building talks on Wednesday were "beginning to pay attention to labour relations again".

He added:"Good relationships are very important between labour and Government and certainly to our economic well-being. Regular dialogue is important."

He claimed the PLP had slipped up in recent years and allowed a gulf to grow between some unions and important Ministries, despite previously promising to meet regularly with labour leaders.

"We hope they stay accountable to their own words and actually do something about it,"he said. "I think the unions have a distinct lack of trust in Government at this time."

Mr. Dunkley questioned why the BPA dispute could not be resolved in the same way as the one involving the BPSU. "Why not send it back to the Permanent (Police) Tribunal?"he said. "Only the Minister can answer that."