{"id":384546,"date":"2026-04-17T17:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384546\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:46:15","slug":"dunedin-police-defy-top-cop-by-posting-pay-protest-stickers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384546\/","title":{"rendered":"Dunedin police defy top cop by posting pay protest stickers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam Sherwood of RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n

Police pay bargaining campaign stickers have been put up inside the Dunedin Central police station, despite the district’s top cop\u00a0telling staff not to.<\/p>\n

It comes after the Police Association told members it was “extremely concerned” a police memo to staff regarding the campaign was “an attempt to intimidate members”.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the association issued a press release which said that for the first time in its 90-year history it was driving a pay bargaining campaign that included “active and visible advocacy from a workforce that is legally forbidden to strike”.<\/p>\n

Bargaining starts on 1 May.<\/p>\n

The campaign slogan was “Repay the Risk”.<\/p>\n

On Friday, RNZ was supplied a photo of a sticker with the slogan that had been put on a window in the Dunedin Central Police Station.<\/p>\n

An RNZ employee said there was at least four of the stickers visible inside the public area of the station.<\/p>\n

It comes a day after Southern District Commander Jason Guthrie emailed staff about a memo that had gone to staff about the bargaining campaign.<\/p>\n

He said it was clear that while staff could “advocate and engage with campaigning”, they could not “alter or diminish our professional standards throughout this period”.<\/p>\n

This meant that any non-branded police material such as stickers and ribbons were not permitted on uniforms, or any police assets such as equipment, vehicles or buildings.<\/p>\n

Guthrie said staff could not engage in any sort of picketing during work time.<\/p>\n

“I am aware that campaign stickers have been placed in multiple locations in at least one station in Southern and those stickers will be removed forthwith.<\/p>\n

“My expectation is that any other stickers on NZP assets (including but not limited to buildings, walls, doors, laptops, vehicles, uniforms) are also removed forthwith and do not reappear.”<\/p>\n

Guthrie said he was sending the email not to “limit or stop anyone supporting or advocating around the pay round”.<\/p>\n

“But to make sure that activity doesn’t overlap with our commitment to professionalism or our operational delivery to communities.”<\/p>\n

The memo<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, a memo was sent to staff on behalf of Assistant Commissioner Deployment Jeanette Park.<\/p>\n

The memo, seen by RNZ, said police had always “positively engaged” with the service organisations and had a “long history” of supporting staff in being able to advocate their position.<\/p>\n

“This does not change.”<\/p>\n

Park said ahead of bargaining it was “important to remind you that our values continue to be front and centre of how we operate”.<\/p>\n

“One of those values is professionalism: look the part, be the part which requires us all to maintain standards and present a professional image to ensure our communities have trust and confidence in us.<\/p>\n

“Stickers, decals, ribbons, clasps, lanyards or other non-branded police material are not permitted on uniforms, or any police assets such as police vehicles, equipment, buildings, office spaces and noticeboards.”<\/p>\n

Park said it was “essential for us to maintain our professionalism to ensure New Zealanders have trust and confidence in us”.<\/p>\n

Following the memo, the association wrote to staff.<\/p>\n

The email, seen by RNZ, said the association “rejects police’s view that participation in the ‘Repay the Risk’ campaign is unprofessional”.<\/p>\n

“Our view is that it is highly professional to care about your terms and conditions and take collegial action to seek improvements, thereby aiding the viability of your occupation.<\/p>\n

“We are extremely concerned that this morning’s P\u0101nui was an attempt to intimidate members and to undermine our campaign.”<\/p>\n

The association said it was “vital” members’ right to participate in the union was protected.<\/p>\n

“Your employer should respect that and refrain from imposing any restrictions inconsistent with other external material, such as claiming that because our campaign materials – wristbands and stickers etc – are non-Police branded they are not permitted within your workplace or while in uniform.”<\/p>\n

Any members who experienced “retaliation” were asked to contact the union.<\/p>\n

“Before ‘Repay the Risk’ was under way Commissioner [Richard] Chambers was advised about the material that was to be distributed. No concerns were raised.<\/p>\n

“Accordingly, association president Steve Watt has written to the commissioner outlining our concerns. We have also indicated our willingness to take things further if we must.”<\/p>\n

On Thursday, police told RNZ they had no further comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Sam Sherwood of RNZ Police pay bargaining campaign stickers have been put up inside the Dunedin Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-384546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}