TWO Garda representative bodies will be demanding a commission on pay and conditions in the New Year. The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said it would be joining with the Association of, Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) in calling for a "major initiative on pay".
The editorial in this month's Garda Review says the GRA and AGSI will be "seeking the support of our other sister associations in, an endeavour to secure a special commission to carry out a comprehensive review of Garda pay pensions, and conditions of service." The associations will also be calling for an annual review mechanism.
"A strategy will be put in place and open meetings will be arranged throughout the country early in the new year.
The editorial said the GRA will" consider entering talks with Department of Justice officials and Defence Force representatives on a new national pay agreement. But this would only be on the basis that it would not "prejudice its right to full participation in pay negotiations."
The GRA is not represented at talks on a new pay deal and it has failed to obtain full trade union status and the right to affiliate to the ICTU.
The magazine also features a commemoration of the "Macushla revolt" 35 years ago. This was the dispute in 1961 when 11 members of the force were dismissed for attending a meeting in the Macushla Ballroom in Dublin.
The meeting, was organised by those frustrated with a pay deal that extended only to those with more than three years' service. Ten days later the 11 gardai were reinstated and the then Minister for Justice, Mr Charles Haughey, announced an inquiry into the pay negotiations.
In a message to its members the GRA said its exclusion from the national pay talks was a "grave, injustice ... which leads to ours members' being placed in the unenviable and unique position of being forced to accept the pay agreement into which we have had no input whatsoever."