Prison officers given overtime deal ultimatum

The prospect of industrial action by the State's prison officers moved closer last night after what they described as a "very difficult and very disappointing meeting" with the Minister for Justice.

Michael McDowell put a counter-offer to the Prison Officers' Association (POA) yesterday following his rejection of its proposal to adjust the overtime bands arrived at by the Civil Service Arbitration Board.

The Minister said the maximum amount of overtime to be shared among the prison officers would be 954,000 hours a year.

While he would increase "very slightly" the number of officers allowed to opt out of overtime altogether, he would also allow a similarly slight increase in the number allowed to do overtime.

He has given the association a deadline of Monday week to decide whether his offer should be put to a national ballot.

Otherwise he will move "immediately" to privatise the prison escort service.

After the meeting the association's general secretary John Clinton said he was "very disappointed" at the Minister's rejection of its proposal.

"We were given a counter-proposal by the Minister today which on the surface at the moment we feel does not give us the opportunity to resolve this issue."

He said he was "very disappointed at a very tight time-frame being placed upon prison officers by the Minister for Justice with regard to this issue. We feel we are being placed into a cul-de-sac on this issue."

The Minister described the meeting as "good, constructive, frank".

He said that in making his offer to "tweak" the arbitration board's deal he had "been reasonable".

"I have not put the prison officers' executive in the position that they have to effectively put the same offer back to their members unaltered."

It was "up to them now. It's their choice".

There was a "small window of opportunity" for the association to decide whether to ballot members, but he warned: "If this is rejected it will have consequences."

These would be closure of a number of prisons and his going to tender to privatise the prison escort service.

Asked whether he was concerned the offer might be rejected, giving rise to industrial action, he said he hoped not.

"I am determined to bring about an end to a la carte overtime in the prison service and to restore sanity in that service."

He said he would prefer not to go down the path of privatisation.