Prison officers will today decide their next move in a row about overtime with Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, which could result in industrial action in prisons.
Mr McDowell has said he will privatise the prison escort service unless the Prison Officers' Association (POA) ballots members on the deal on offer, with a recommendation for acceptance.
The association has called a special delegate conference in Dublin today to debate the issue.
Delegates will decide whether to put the current pay offer to a ballot or reject it outright, in which case industrial action would be likely to follow.
POA sources declined to speculate yesterday about the stance delegates were likely to take.
Mr McDowell's attempts to reform prison overtime have been the subject of a dispute between him and the POA for the past two years.
The association's members have already rejected the terms of a compromise put forward by the Civil Service Arbitration Board. That would have seen the State's 3,200 prison officers earn a salary of between €48,000 and €70,000 each, in return for working an average of seven hours' overtime a week.
They would also have received a once-off payment of €13,750.
The Government believed that, under this offer, the prisons' overtime bill, which has exceeded €60 million, would have been reduced by €25 million.
However, POA members rejected it by two-to-one.
Many did not want to work overtime, and believed they would be forced to do so under the deal.
