DELEGATES at the prison officers' conference have instructed their association's leadership to seek to renegotiate a pay package rejected last December.
Prison officers' basic pay ranges from about £18,000 to £25,000, but there is a wide range of allowances and extra payments which substantially increases earnings. The overtime bill is £17 million annually, an average of about £6,800 for every officer.
In December, a ballot of members on a package which offered a 4.5 per cent pay rise was rejected. Yesterday, alter lengthy debate, delegates at the POA conference instructed its leadership to reopen talks on the package and seek adjustments on the changed working practices suggested in return for the pay increase.
The changes proposed include the introduction of time recording of employees at all prisons (although time clocks have been installed at all the prisons, only those in Mountjoy are used).
The president of the association, Mr Michael Lawton, said prison officers "live in the real world" and accepted that future pay increases would be related to greater efficiency in all public sector areas. He said the POA could counter any calls for privatisation of prisons by offering "quality services which will not be matched by private companies whose only reason for existence is profit for their shareholders".