The leadership of the Garda Representative Association is expected to urge a Yes vote over the coming week from its 8,000 members to accept a Government pay award they have twice already rejected. It is understood that a public relations company is being recruited to assist the leadership in promoting the agreement before the ballot which ends on Friday, December 10th.
One point on which the leadership expects to attract a positive vote is the payment of back-pay owed under the Partnership 2000 pay deal. This could amount to about £3,000 before tax. If gardai vote to accept the deal, they could receive an additional after-tax sum of about £1,500 before Christmas.
A senior GRA source said it was hoped that the mood of the membership had changed since the last two votes, in September and October, when gardai rejected the Government pay offer. The source pointed out that these votes were before the nurse's strike and many gardai felt it was worth waiting to see if the nurses could defeat the Government's pay restraint policy.
However, other sources said there was still considerable opposition to the latest pay offer from Government. Four members of the central executive committee of the GRA voted against accepting the offer at last Wednesday's meeting.
The pay deal agreed during the negotiations did not contain any additional payment for working the new £55 million Garda PULSE system, the biggest computer network in the State.
Under point three of the agreement, the two sides stated that payment of the public service clause of Partnership 2000 was "conditional on there having been verified progress to a satisfactory level on implementation of the modernisation programme".
In this context, it added, the GRA "accepts the official side's proposal that the adjustments will be by way of 2 per cent on all points of the Garda pay scale and on appropriate allowances with effect from 1st July, 1999".
There was Garda opposition to the changing of shift work in city divisions and to a new method of issuing pay cheques. These issues are to be the subject of further negotiations, but are outside the scope of the present pay awards.
A formal system for consultation between Garda representatives and management is outlined in the deal.