The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has rejected new pay proposals aimed at averting planned strike action by gardaí on Friday.
The AGSI has rejected the offer put forward by the Department of Justice following several days of talks facilitated by officials of the Workplace Relations Commission.
As reported in The Irish Times on Saturday, the proposed deal involved the reintroduction of a €4,000 rent allowance for gardaí recruited in recent years.
It also proposed the establishment of a new payment to cover a 15-minute briefing session prior to gardaí starting their shifts.
AGSI president Antoinette Cunningham said: “We were presented with a proposal which was inequitable. We represent 2,080 sergeants and inspectors and we will not part-negotiate on their behalf.”
She said the association remained available for talks and awaited “more coherent and realistic proposals” from the Government .
However, she said that as of Tuesday evening, the association’s planned day of industrial action on Friday would be going ahead.
She said individual members of the AGSI were planning on withdrawing their service for a 24-hour period.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) had already rejected the proposals.
The AGSI and the GRA are planning a withdrawal of service action on Friday for 24 hours from 7am.
It will be repeated for each of the Fridays of this month, after talks between the associations and the Department of Justice broke down at the weekend without resolution.
Both Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe met with the GRA and the AGSI on Tuesday evening.
In a statement following the meeting, Ms Fitzgerald and Mr Donohoe said there had been “a useful exchange of views and all involved remain committed to continuing attempts to reach a resolution”.
Meanwhile, Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has issued an order to all Garda members to turn up for work on Friday, when a mass withdrawal of service by members of the force is planned.
In a move that will greatly increase tensions in the Garda pay dispute row which has led to the planned strike, Commissioner O’Sullivan has ordered those whose shift falls on Friday to be present for work.
However, she has also cancelled all rest days and all leave due on Friday, meaning every member of the Garda has been ordered to be present at their posts and Garda stations on the day.
Contingency plan
Management sources said, given the GRA’s rejection of the deal, senior officers now needed to know who was available for work on Friday so a contingency plan could be put in place.
This was vital, the sources said, because there were almost 12,500 AGSI and GRA members in a Garda force of just under 13,000.
Earlier, senior management sources had said that when the order to all Garda members to be in work on Friday is sent out on Tuesday, they will be told to report to their senior officers and inform them whether they will be in work.
“The Commissioner has given AGSI and the GRA plenty of time to negotiate now she needs to put that contingency plan in place, and this order has to be part of that process.”
The decision to send out the order emerged after talks involving about 250 senior officers at the Garda Westmanstown club in west Dublin concluded at lunchtime on Tuesday, several hours earlier than expected.
