At the end of next week, unless there is some intervention or a change of mind, hundreds of gardai - perhaps thousands - plan to "go sick". The Garda Representative Association (GRA) intends to use what has become known elsewhere as the "blue 'flu" tactic in pursuance of its pay claim. For good measure, the GRA intends to notify the world's media that its members will also be sick for the Tour de France when its Irish phase takes off in July.
The general public which holds the Garda Siochana in high esteem may have difficulty absorbing the prospect of its rank and file members giving voice to what would be, in effect, a collective lie. The Garda is a synonym for truth and for high standards. It holds its special place in the public estimate because its members are sworn to apply those standards in the protection of the community. What is now threatened by the members of the GRA is the vitiation of that oath by walking off their posts under the cloak of an agreed untruth. It may be that this is bluff. It is difficult to believe that those who represent the membership have so little understanding of the long-term and irreversible damage which this course of action would inflict upon the status and the well-being of the gardai themselves. Yet they have shown little enough sensitivity in this respect up to now. The public was shocked by the undignified brawling which characterised the dispute between the rival Garda associations over a three-year period. This week's disruptive march to Leinster House and the picketing of the Dail, spread the impression that the gardai can play fast and loose with the very principles which they are in existence to defend.
The gardai argue that they have lost relativity with nurses, a group with which they previously compared favourably in basic pay. But it might be borne in mind that gardai can earn significant additional money through overtime. When overtime was plentiful, members were less concerned about the basic rate. Now, with fewer demands for garda services as a result of the paramilitaries' ceasefires, overtime has reduced and there is a renewed concentration on basic pay. It is better for the long-term conduct of the Garda that basic pay be high. The professionalism and sense of vocational commitment which have characterised the force are not fostered in an environment which measures the hours on the job or by clock-watching. In an ideal world, the overtime concept would be set aside. But it is impossible to turn the clock back to the era before the 1970 Conroy Report which fixed the force's working hours and provided for payment for hours worked in excess. The next best option is to set out realistic productivity and performance targets which can be matched appropriately by premium pay rates. Skill, professionalism, dedication, and the achievement of agreed targets provide a better basis for good pay than punching time on the rosters. Such possibilities will be present under the Strategic Management Initiative in the near future. Taken together with the existing offer from the State, what is being put on the table for the guards is not unattractive.
A far-seeing GRA executive would go back into negotiation on this basis. It would abandon the dishonest and destabilising tactics which are now in contemplation. It would acknowledge that the force within which it operates has a unique standing in the community - it only has to look at the dismal pay, lowly status and poor conditions which are the lot of so many of its continental counterparts. It would recognise that the Garda's good name is in jeopardy and that it has the responsibility for that good name in its own hands.