Prison strike more likely as deal rejected

The threat of industrial action in prisons has strengthened, following the rejection by the Irish Prison Service of a compromise deal on overtime pay put forward by the Prison Officers' Association (POA).

Prison officers had said they would allow the prison service time to consider their compromise offer before they would discuss industrial action. However, now that that offer has been formally rejected, the overtime row looks set to deepen.

The officers will hold last-ditch talks on Friday with the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, aimed at resolving the dispute which has been ongoing for two years. The Army and Garda are on standby to go into the prisons in the event of a strike.

Last week, the director general of the Irish Prison Service, Brian Purcell, wrote to the POA's national executive, informing them that a compromise offer they had put forward was "totally unacceptable".

Mr Purcell told the POA the initial offer on annualised hours had been agreed at arbitration. He said if the prison service allowed the officers to change the terms of the offer after arbitration this would create a dangerous precedent for all future public service pay negotiations.

Mr Purcell offered the POA the opportunity to meet with himself, Mr McDowell and the secretary general of the Department of Justice, Seán Aylward.

Last Friday, the POA indicated they would be available to attend the meeting, which has been set for Friday at the Department's offices on St Stephen's Green, Dublin.

Under a pay offer already rejected by the POA, prison officers would have earned a salary of between €48,000 and €70,000 in exchange for working an average of seven hours overtime each per week. They would also have been paid a once-off payment of €13,750.

Different bands of overtime were included in the terms of that deal. Around 5 per cent of officers were to be permitted to work no overtime. Another, as yet undetermined, percentage of the State's near-3,200 prison officers were to agree to work other bands of overtime hours per year including 112 hours, 228 hours and 340 hours.

The Government believed that, under this offer, the prisons' overtime bill, which has exceeded €60 million, would have been reduced by €25 million.

However, the officers rejected it two-to-one. Many did not want to work overtime and believed they would be forced to do so under the deal.

Under the compromise plan agreed by the POA at its annual conference in Castlebar, Co Mayo, in May, the prison officers wanted the top 340-hour per year band to be increased to 400 hours per year.

They also wanted the banding changed to allow "at least 10 per cent" of officers work no overtime at all. The association believes these non-pay elements can be changed because they are not bound by arbitration.

They also claimed the changes would not have cost the State any more money than the rejected deal.