A ballot by prison officers on a compromise aimed at ending their long-running overtime dispute with Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is to be concluded today.
Mr McDowell is seeking to implement reforms that would see the prisons' overtime bill of €60 million reduced by about €25 million a year.
Members of the Prison Officers' Association (POA) have already rejected by two-to-one an offer that would have resulted in them earning a salary of between €48,000 and €70,000 in exchange for working an average of seven hours' overtime each a week.
They would also have received a once-off payment of €13,750. Many did not want to work overtime and believed they would be forced to do so under the deal.
Mr McDowell subsequently agreed to "tweak" the terms and delegates to a POA conference decided last month to recommend acceptance of the new offer to the association's 3,200 members.
The result of the ballot will be known tomorrow.
If the officers reject the pay offer, Mr McDowell says he will press ahead with a €25 million per annum cost-cutting proposal involving the closure of prisons and the privatisation of the prison escort system. This in turn would be likely to trigger industrial action by prison officers.
Different bands of overtime were included in the pay offer which was rejected by POA members in April. Under that deal, about 5 per cent of officers were to work no overtime, while some would work up to 112 hours, others up to 228 hours and others up to 340 hours.
The latest offer would allow up to 13 per cent of officers to work no overtime. Their hours would be worked by colleagues who wish to work more overtime than was permitted under the rejected deal.
