Gardai to be included in regulations on break times at work

The Government is to introduce legislation removing the "blanket exclusion" of members of an Garda Síochána from EU Directives concerning working hours, the High Court has heard.

The court was due to hear a challenge by two gardaí against the exclusion of gardaí, as provided for in the 1997 Working Time Act, from the EU Working Time Directive (WTD) recognising the need for rest periods during working hours as a basic right of workers in the EU.

Where a working day is more than six hours long, every worker is entitled to rest breaks.

The case by the two gardaí did not proceed after the court was told Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor had said in a letter she will bring a Bill to Cabinet “in the next six weeks” applying the terms of the EU Working Time Directive to gardaí.

Garda John Gaine and Garda Padraig Harrington brought the case after working eight hour shifts, without any breaks, while on witness protection duty between October 2010 and January 2011 when based in Roxboro Road district in Limerick.

During the predominantly nighttime shifts, they said they got neither a rest break or a meal break and were not paid overtime for the periods they should have been allowed such breaks.

The Government’s enactment of Section 3 of the 1997 Organisation of Working Time Act meant the EU Working Time Directive did not apply to either the Garda or Defence Forces, they claimed.

This “blanket exclusion” from the EU Working Time Directive meant the 1997 Act failed to comply with the directive and the directive had not been properly transposed into Irish law in breach of EU law, they claimed.

They said they were entitled to the protections afforded by the directive but those were denied and they suffered loss and inconvenience. While they made repeated requests on the Garda Commissioner for compensation for their loss, the commissioner refused to acknowledge their entitlements, they claimed.

In proceedings against the Garda Commissioner and the State, they sought declarations including the 1997 Act’s exclusion of gardaí from the directive breached the EU Working Time Directive and Garda Síochána code. They also sought damages for breach of contract and aggravated damages.

When the case was called on Wednesday, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan was told by Eileen Barrington SC, for the plaintiffs, it was not proceeding.

Her clients’ solicitors Hughes and Hughes had been provided with a letter from Ms Mitchell O’Connor stating, following clarification from the Courts of Justice of the European Union, that the Minister planned to introduce legislation to amend the 1997 Act as it applies to gardaí so as to bring the law into line with the Courts of Justice of the European Union rulings.

The Minister would also be writing to the Minister for Defence in relation to the matter.

The judge granted a request by counsel for both sides to adjourn the case to late November.