Officers from the most senior operational rank in the Garda are calling for an independent commission on pay and conditions for the entire force. The Association of Chief Superintendents has made the call following what its members see as a very disappointing pay settlement under the public sector pay awards.
After seven years of negotiation and arbitration under both the PESP and PCW national pay schemes, the chief superintendents have achieved only a 6 per cent pay increase, with marginal improvements to service increment payments rising to 8.72 per cent after six years in the rank. They had been seeking a 15 per cent increase.
The award is the first to be made under the present pay round to any of the Garda staff associations and would appear to indicate that the rest of the force can expect little better.
Throughout the force, there is considerable dissatisfaction that the other public sector workers - teachers, nurses and prison officers, with whom gardai traditionally had at least parity - all achieved much higher pay awards. The nurses and teachers achieved almost three times the basic award granted to the chief superintendents. The Prison Officers Association last month settled for a 13 per cent increase.
Dissatisfaction at the last award to the 8,000 officers of garda rank led to the internal dispute which split the Garda Representative Association (GRA). The GRA and associations representing the ranks of sergeant, inspector and superintendent are still seeking pay increases and are also seeking the establishment of a commission of inquiry on pay.
There is some anticipation that a Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) report into the force, due to be published shortly, may go some way to meeting the demand for a commission of inquiry on pay and conditions.
The chief superintendents' association was informed of its pay award last week after its claim had gone to independent adjudication before senior counsel Mr Noel Durkan. The chief superintendents had been in negotiations over their pay claim since 1990.
Before the award, chief superintendents' pay started, on appointment, at £34,513, rising to a maximum of £39,911 after four years' service. There are 44 officers in the rank. Chief superintendents are the most senior operational rank in the force. They are responsible for Garda divisions or specialist units with a national role.
The association's president, Chief Supt Tom Monaghan, of Galway, said: "In general terms, we feel that the Garda conciliation and arbitration scheme has not worked well for our members. Other groups in the public sector have fared much better in negotiations. They have reached much better awards for restructuring and agreeing to changes in work practices.
"Our members have gone along with major changes, such as the regionalisation of the force, and the establishment of various new bureaux. Many of these changes were initiated by the chief superintendents themselves as senior managers and we believe this has not been fully recognised in the pay award offered.
"Earlier this year, the executive of the Association of Chief Superintendents called for the setting up of an independent commission to examine pay and conditions for the entire force with agreed terms of reference. We are now convinced more than ever that this is the only way forward.
"We think that the pay scales applying to all other senior ranks from chief superintendent upwards are quite poor and are well below similar ranks in the United Kingdom. A senior superintendent in the UK earns between £7,000 and £8,000 more than a chief superintendent in this country which is practically the same salary as an assistant commissioner in the Garda Siochana.
"This is in stark contrast with the levels of remuneration for other management sectors in this State which are comparatively better paid than their equivalents in the UK."