Angry prison officers' representatives say proposals to scrap their overtime amounts to being asked to work for nothing.
Delegates at an executive council meeting of the Prison Officers Association (POA) today expressed exasperation at the lack of detail contained in a framework document which the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, said must be agreed to in 90 days.
A meeting with the Irish Prison Service has been arranged for Thursday but the clock is already ticking on the 90-day deadline which the Irish Prison Service (IPS) say is non-negotiable.
POA assistant general secretary Mr Eugene Dennehey said it would be practically impossible to consult members about the proposals within the imposed timeframe even if detailed plans had been agreed.
"It flies in the face of any industrial relations procedure to tell us we must comply with a document within 90 days ... the first time the Prison Service put this to us was on the 9th of May," Mr Dennehey said.
However, Mr Jim Mitchell, spokesman for the service, said plans to reduce overtime had begun six years ago and that staff had an input into the Strategic Management Program which was circulated in February 2001. "So this should not come as any surprise to them".
But he conceded that the operational consequences of an end to overtime would need to be discussed with the POA before new procedures could be implemented.
Mr Dennehy said his members were also "furious" at what he described as the Minister's "negotiation through the media", which led to delegates walking out ahead of Mr McDowell's speech to their annual conference nearly two weeks ago.
In the course of his speech the Minister said overtime was dictating "all other expenditure items" in the Prison Service budget such as capital investment, training or rehabilitation programs.
The cost of overtime last year was put at €59.3 million but Mr Dennehy said the minister could not make his members pay for the Department's financial problems.
"It is a bit rich that he and his predecessors placed huge sanctions on us for not working overtime and went to Europe to get a derogation from the working time directive," Mr Dennehy said.
He added the Prison Service wants "extra work without extra pay" and that his members could not dictate their own overtime hours. However he said prison officers would have "no complaint" about new arrangements if extra staff were recruited to guarantee a 39-hour week.