THE BODY representing rank-and-file gardaí has said it is taking legal advice on the “legitimacy” of the public service pension levy, vowing to explore the legal avenue “to conclusion”.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) has also used the latest issue of its official magazine Garda Review to launch a fierce attack on the Government.
It said the Celtic Tiger boom had ended leaving a poorly-resourced Garda force and the Government was now pitting public and private sector workers against each other while listening only to lobbying from “their friends” in Ibec, the employers’ group.
The comments are contained in the editorial of Garda Review which is written by GRA general secretary PJ Stone. They represent the latest chapter in increasingly outspoken criticism from within the force to the Government’s handling of the boom and current difficulties.
Members of the GRA national executive staged a protest outside the Dáil on Wednesday and will hold a mass demonstration against the levy next Wednesday, when members will march to the Dáil.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors has taken the unprecedented move of encouraging its members to join Ictu’s day of protest in Dublin today. Neither organisation has taken to the streets since 1998.
Back then they held rallies in advance of their “Blue Flu” action, when their members rang in sick in a row with the government over pay.
Mr Stone told The Irish Times the Government was mistaken if it thought it could suffer a period of unrest after which the pensions levy would be accepted. “This is not going to go away,” he said.
In the Garda Review editorial he described the pensions levy as “tax by any other name”. It was being used to divert attention away from those responsible for the current “economic crisis”.
He has accused the Government of “abusing semantics” to focus on public sector workers’ pensions, “rather than those who squandered the profits of the Celtic Tiger”.
“We have demanded an urgent meeting with the Taoiseach to have our case heard,” he said. “We have also taken legal advice on the legitimacy of the undermining of our contract [via the levy] with the Government. We will progress these avenues to conclusion.”
The Irish Times understands the GRA will not decide on its legal options until it has seen the final draft of the legislation providing for the levy.
Mr Stone said his members were now faced with an “inequitable” average pay cut of 6.1 per cent as a “penalty” for having a public sector pension.
“It appears the only lobbying the Government have listened to is that from their friends in Ibec who are keen to take any opportunity to demolish the public sector pension.”
The GRA has made contact with the Prison Officers’ Association and the Irish Nurses’ Organisation about forming a “loose alliance” aimed at protecting their unsocial hours allowances, Mr Stone told The Irish Times.
As a representative body rather than a union, the GRA is banned from striking because all gardaí take an oath to serve the country. They also cannot participate in broader industrial mechanisms.
However, the association believes some of its concerns can be raised via nurses and prison officers, who also provide 24-hour emergency and security services respectively.