Rank-and-file gardaí are set to engage in industrial action, likely affecting security at some EU presidency meetings, and are also set to march on Garda Headquarters as part of their campaign.
Members of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), which represents more than 11,000 gardaí in the 14,700-strong force, have voted for the action in a bid to secure better pay and conditions.
The gardaí have agreed to refuse to take up any overtime duties in the Dublin region on five dates in October: the 6th, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st.
October 6th is the day the budget is to be unveiled, and there are also 10 events scheduled in Dublin on that day connected to the presidency of the Council of the European Union, including a conference of EU military and cyber commanders and four other security-related meetings. The remaining four dates are among the five Saturdays in October, with the last one coinciding with Halloween.
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The decision to engage in the action comes a week after it emerged a member of the GRA central executive was informed by Garda Headquarters it was considering discipling him over the manner of his engagement with the media.
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The comments Garda management have taken issue with were made by the GRA central executive committee (CEC) member after a Garda car was rammed by a stolen vehicle in Finglas, north Dublin, and flipped over last month. Garda Headquarters claims the remarks amounted to commenting on policing operations, rather than campaigning for GRA members.
The planned industrial action next month was agreed at a special meeting of the GRA’s CEC in Athlone on Wednesday evening.
Members of the CEC will also “collectively march on Garda Headquarters” on a date to be agreed. This is being done to highlight to Garda management and the Department of Justice that the “treatment” of the GRA and its members “under the guise of industrial relations processes will no longer be tolerated”.
Gardaí are pushing for the implementation of enhancements in subsistence and travel they say have been agreed by the Workplace Relations Commission, as well as a working-time agreement from two years ago.
The GRA also says Garda management and the Government have failed to progress their claims under local bargaining and also failed to give the GRA collective bargaining rights at future pay negotiations.
In a message to all GRA members, association general secretary Ronan Slevin said the action was being undertaken “to highlight the ongoing frustration felt by members”.
“We have spent months and years trying desperately to advance and resolve all of these matters and we have consistently been met with procrastination, delay and avoidance,” Slevin told the GRA’s members.
“We will now make direct contact with the office of the commissioner and the Department of Justice in the coming days and myself and your divisional representatives will continue to keep you informed of all developments over the weeks ahead.”
Because members of the Garda are banned from organising industrial action, the CEC members voted in favour of a motion that each one, individually, will not make themselves available for overtime duties on the five dates next month.
This outcome has been circulated to the membership of the organisation, by far the biggest staff body in the Garda. Although the vote is not binding for all GRA members, other gardaí are expected to take it upon themselves to follow.
That means industrial action is not being organised, or led, by any person or group within the GRA and no members of the association are breaching the ban on organising industrial action.
Instead, it will be left to each garda to individually decide whether they volunteer for overtime on the five days next month.
The basis for the action is similar to the so-called “Blue Flu” in 1998, when thousands of Garda members took it upon themselves to call in sick on the same day in a protest over pay.
The decision of the GRA CEC to march on Garda Headquarters comes 3½ years after the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors undertook a march on headquarters in a row over changes to rosters.
