A work-to-rule planned by members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) for this week has been stood down after the organisation said it had made “significant progress with the Garda Commissioner”.
The industrial action was set to coincide, over the coming days, with some of the highest-profile events of Ireland’s presidency of the Council of the EU. They including the visit to Dublin on Thursday of about 50 government leaders and heads of state, including Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the European Political Community meeting.
In addition to the EU presidency event, a number of protests are planned on Thursday and if the public sector strike goes ahead, there will also be a substantial march by union members in Dublin that day.
Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan had previously expressed confidence, however, that despite the logistical challenges presented by issues such as travel, An Garda Síochána would be in a position to effectively police the situation.
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There had been concerns about the potential impact of the action on one of the biggest security operations in the history of the State. However, it was called off on Monday after a vote by the GRA’s national executive.
The work-to-rule, which had been due to last five days, had come about over what the GRA viewed as breaches of overtime arrangements and repeated cancellations of rest days since the EU presidency commenced on July 1st.
The GRA had said it was taking the action because, in part, the issues needed to be addressed for the period after the presidency came to an end.
On Monday afternoon, it was announced that enhanced premiums would be paid to gardaí scheduled to work overtime on Thursday. It was also confirmed that some of the wider issues involved were being looked at by the Rosters Review Group.
In a message sent to GRA members in one division on Monday evening, it was stated that after “long and vigorous debate and negotiations, the work-to-rule policy has been lifted”.
