MEMBERS of the Prison Officers' Association (POA) are to challenge the validity of a ballot on pay and conditions concluded last month. The move threatens to split the union, which represents some 2,300 prison officers in the State.
The deal to overhaul the prison service was agreed after negotiations between the Government and the POA last month. The association recommended the offer to its members two weeks ago and it was accepted by 1,271 votes to 871.
In a letter to the Department of Justice on June 20th, solicitors acting for two officers of the POA branch in Mountjoy Prison said that they intended to challenge the ballot.
It is believed that more than 450 officers in Mountjoy and Wheatfield prisons in Dublin have signed petitions supporting the action.
The solicitor said that the main issue of concern was the "short notice given for the ballot". The offer of revised pay scales under the PCW had a number of "flexibility provisions" attached. These included an electronic system to monitor staff movements in and out of each prison and the recruitment of qualified nurses to the prison service.
The deal also provided for a new method of allocating overtime and the introduction of new technology, which would result in "technology replacing staff on certain posts".
According to a prison source, about 150 officers voted to challenge the ballot at a meeting in Mountjoy on Monday night. A petition expressing opposition to the ballot is believed to have been signed by some 300 POA members in Mountjoy.
The POA general secretary, Mr Denis McGrath, said that the Mountjoy meeting was "invalid and contrary to the rules of the union". He added: "As far as the union is concerned, there was no meeting."
Mr McGrath said that the POA had been advised that branches of the union did not have the authority to challenge a union decision.
"The ballot in favour was a vast majority and we have a duty to implement it as a democratic vote. If people wish to leave the association, it's their business. We know it's not large numbers. If they're not prepared to abide by the rules of the club, they're free to leave the club."
The POA solicitors have written to the solicitors for the Mountjoy officers saying that dissatisfied officers have to take action individually. This would carry "Ball of the risks and consequences of an adverse order for costs against them personally in the event of failure in any such proceedings", the letter warns.
A source in Wheatfield Prison said that about 160 staff had signed a petition pledging financial support to a Wheatfield officer who is challenging the ballot. The source said that the union had declared a meeting on the ballot illegal because it was carried out while the ballot was being conducted.
