MEMBERS of the Garda's new National Fraud Bureau are in dispute over the introduction of new working conditions without what they regard as adequate consultation.
A meeting of about 40 detectives is due to take place today about working conditions at the bureau's new offices at Garda Headquarters.
Officers are said to be angry at the introduction of new performance related working conditions and the use of new technology prior to negotiations with their chosen representatives.
Most officers are understood to be members of the Garda Federation, which is not recognised by Garda management or the Department of Justice.
The new National Fraud Bureau is still in the process of moving to Garda Headquarters from its old offices in the Dublin Metropolitan Area (DMA) headquarters in Harcourt Square.
Under recommendations to the Government by a special committee chaired by Mr Peter Maguire SC, the new bureau is to have increased resources, new technology and the assistance of accountants and lawyers to help tackle serious fraud.
The introduction of personalised "swipe" cards which monitor the identities of officers entering the new Fraud Bureau offices in the Phoenix Park are said to be a matter of some annoyance.
Officers are believed to feel the swipe cards will be used to log their time spent in the office under a new performance appraisal review system and they are unhappy no negotiation has taken place about this.
The dispute is the second in Dublin in the past month over lack of negotiations with representatives of Garda Federation members.
In recent days repair work began at the Clondalkin Garda station in west Dublin where officers threatened industrial action if their conditions were not improved.
Local Garda Federation members threatened industrial action after Garda management sought the removal of their local representative, Garda Christy Murray, from a meeting to discuss conditions in February. Within days of the dispute being publicised, painting and building work began at Clondalkin, according to gardai.
Garda Federation members in the Dublin South Division gave a deadline of Match 28th for meeting their representative to discuss conditions.
The Department of Justice wrote to Garda Murray refusing a meeting, despite the fact that the federation represents 50 of the 54 officers of garda rank at Clondalkin. A senior official wrote that a meeting with him would be a "breach" of the Garda Siochana Act.