In its handling of the Garda pay dispute, the Government is facing a test of its authority and its resolve on public pay policy. Confronted by the threat of strike action by rank-and-file gardaí on four days in November, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has ruled out a special pay deal to settle their claim. To act otherwise would undermine the Lansdowne Road agreement on pay restoration in the public service and produce industrial relations chaos.
The agreement partially reverses – on a phased annual basis – the series of temporary pay cuts imposed as austerity measures. Trade unions representing some 250,000 public service workers have already accepted its terms. The Garda Representative Association (GRA) is not party to the accord but insists its members should be offered better terms on pay restoration than those accepted by most public service workers.
Strike action by members of An Garda Síochána – under whatever guise it is conducted – is illegal. In 1998, the GRA staged a State-wide "blue flu'' where members feigned illness and did not turn up for work, in breach of their undertaking not to strike. They failed to uphold the law and were roundly criticised at the time. Nearly two decades later, the GRA is threatening to repeat the same mistake by using the same failed tactics in a dispute they cannot expect or – because of the potential knock-on implications for the Exchequer finances – be allowed to win.
But this time – unlike 1998 when the GRA alone took industrial action – the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) is making similar threats. Next month it will decide how to proceed. Earlier this year the middle-management gardaí were in militant mood and favoured a range of protests: from strike action, to a uniformed march on parliament, to picketing the homes of ministers.
In resisting the garda case for special treatment, it would seem the Government has the support of the main opposition parties. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has questioned why the terms of an agreement negotiated with the Government last week were rejected by GRA delegates in favour of strike action; and why the 10,000 rank-and-file members were not asked to vote on those terms. The Government can neither afford the financial and industrial relations cost nor would it survive the political consequences of a defeat on this issue.
For the GRA leadership, this too is a challenge and a test of how they manage their members’ expectations. Whether they repeat past mistakes by encouraging their members to break the law; or whether they use the next four weeks to re-engage in talks and reach a realistic settlement. That may require compromise on both sides but it must be framed within the terms of what is on offer to others.