Negotiations on a major overhaul of the Garda in return for another pay increase will begin next month, after 68 per cent of rank-and-file gardai voted to accept the Government's 9 per cent pay offer.
Changes to rostering, moves to allow i hold jobs previously carried out by officers, more civilians to work for the force in jobs previously done by gardai, and the use of new computer systems are among measures to be negotiated in the next phase of pay talks. Garda bodies will also press for a pay review body or to be allowed participate in national pay talks.
The productivity measures, including moves to discourage double-jobbing among gardai, are contained in the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) and bottom-up review of the force.
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, the Minister for Justice and Garda Representative Association leaders welcomed yesterday's outcome of the national ballot.
"I'm obviously very pleased with the result, insofar as the GRA is concerned and for the force itself," Mr Byrne said. "It's very helpful and it augurs well for the future of the association and the force."
The result was announced shortly after 11 a.m. yesterday after the counting of 6,351 votes returned in the postal ballot of 8,335 rank-and-file gardai. The number who voted yes to the 9 per cent pay increase was 4,335, with 1,998 rejecting the deal. The poll represented a 76 per cent turnout.
The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, was "very pleased that gardai accepted the deal in emphatic terms".
Talks between Government officials, Garda representatives, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation would begin next month, Mr O'Donoghue said, to involve gardai in public pay negotiations. This would "ensure that we do not have a recurrence of recent events", he said.
Gardai will see the increase in their weekly pay cheques and lump-sum arrears of £1,752 to £2,786 before tax by the end of the month.
The GRA president, Mr John Healy, said next month's talks would have to cater for those who "may feel left behind by this deal".
There was no breakdown of those who made up the 31 per cent who rejected the offer, as the ballot was anonymous. In the last pay vote in 1994 exactly the same proportion rejected the offer.
The acting general secretary, Mr P.J. Stone, said next month's negotiations would be a "big test for the GRA leadership", and these discussions would be "far more difficult". The first item on the agenda would be a Garda pay review body, or meaningful involvement of gardai in national pay negotiations, he said.
Mr Stone said the vote should end industrial unrest in the force and further "blue flu" protests were unlikely. "It would be extremely difficult to have industrial unrest when the Government could argue: `We're prepared to pay you if you're prepared to change.' Unless of course they try to impose change."
Mr Stone said there was no question that those who had rejected the deal might break away from the GRA as happened in 1994. "This is a new united organisation."
Members of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors are also expected to accept an offer of 9 per cent, ranging from 7.2 to 11 per cent across ranks. The AGSI postal ballot closes on Tuesday morning and the result should be known that day.
