Mid-ranking gardaí refuse to work extra from January

Middle-ranking gardaí have said they will not work additional hours provided for under the Haddington Road Agreement beyond the end of this year.

Under the agreement, gardaí were required to work an additional 30 hours a year for no extra payment. The Lansdowne Road accord would have required gardaí to work similar numbers of hours without additional payment in 2016 and 2017.

However, the Government may avoid a pre-election clash with gardaí on the hours issue as technically the hours can be worked over a calendar year.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has expressed "deep disappointment" that its members could face a freeze on incremental pay rises under financial emergency legislation which is currently going through the Oireachtas.

Members of the AGSI voted a number of weeks ago to reject the new Lansdowne Road deal on public service pay, which the Government considers to be an extension of the previous Haddington Road deal.

Under the new financial emergency legislation, trade unions and organisations which are considered to have repudiated a collective agreement would lose out on incremental increases as they move up the pay scale until 2018.

However, it is likely to be several months before the issue of the additional hours for next year – and any corresponding threat to increments – comes to a head.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said yesterday following the AGSI statement that while the Haddington Road Agreement continued in operation until next July, "gardaí will have fulfilled their commitments [in terms of working hours] under Haddington Road Agreement by end of this year".

Deputy general secretary of the AGSI John Jacob said the Haddington Road deal placed certain obligations on his members and these were "complied with willingly". However, he said the Government had specifically committed to a review of An Garda Síochána – due to be concluded by June 2014 – but "we are a long way from it being finalised".

“We have no confidence that any current deal would be honoured, not to mention the cost to our members,” he said.

Recent talks with Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and the Department of Public Expenditure "have offered us no solution to this impasse", he said.

Rank-and-file gardaí, who are members of the Garda Representative Association, have already said they they will not work the 30 additional hours a year required under the Haddington Road deal from next January.