Garda dispute talks to resume next week

Efforts to agree a contingency plan for the next stage of industrial action by gardaí are to continue over the weekend, with formal talks to resume on Monday or Tuesday.

Garda dispute talks to resume next week

Talks on the issues underlying the dispute took place between the two Garda representative bodies and the Department of Justice yesterday and they too are to resume after the weekend.

The first day of action, taken by the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) in the form of a limited work to rule, was due to end at 7am this morning.

Some 2,000 middle-ranking members of the force were asked to refrain from using the Pulse internal IT system for 24 hours, leaving a backlog of activities to be recorded.

A concession was made for a number of custody officers around the country to ensure that newly arrested individuals were properly recorded for fear any change in procedures could jeopardise prosecutions.

AGSI general secretary John Jacob said the action had been well supported by AGSI members and was not impeded by higher-ranking officers.

“It will have a minimal effect,” he said. “If there’s an incident that needs to be recorded today, it can be recorded tomorrow. It there’s a direction that’s required on a file today, that same direction can be given orally today and the records created for it tomorrow.

“This was the least disruptive action we could take but we did need to flag to the Government that our intentions are real. We would prefer, rather than jump in at the deep end, that we would wade in slowly and that’s what we’ve done.

“We’re moving slowly rather than engaging in complete withdrawal of labour initially and it does give people a chance to realise where we stand.”

Mr Jacob said the action has not affected inter-personal relations within stations.

“From what I hear, the senior management teams in the districts and divisions, while I can’t say they support the action, they are not opposed to it,” he said. “They understand the situation a lot of their gardaí and sergeants find themselves in.”

The action, by the AGSI and the Garda Representative Association (GRA), centres on claims for pay restoration but the AGSI also wants an end to the ban on gardaí engaging in trade union activity. They say at the very least they should be allowed negotiating rights and access to the Workplace Relations Commission and Labour Court.

Both bodies met separately with officials from the Department of Justice yesterday amid continued Government insistence that the pay claims could not be met.

Mr Jacob said the talks were around the “clarification of issues”.

“There was no developments from yesterday but we didn’t go backwards either,” he said.

Those talks are due to resume on Monday or Tuesday but if there is no agreement, AGSI members intend withdrawing from Pulse plus all administrative duties for 24 hours next Friday.

That will be followed by a complete withdrawal of labour by AGSI members and the 10,500 members of the Garda Representative Association on the four Fridays in November.

Both bodies had contacts with Garda management yesterday to work out contingency plans . The GRA has said the Emergency Response Unit and Regional Support Units will turn up for work as usual but confusion remains over how minor emergencies will be handled and how the courts and airports will operate.

AGSI said plans will have to be secret so as not to facilitate criminals.

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