No money in Justice, Garda budgets for pay rises

With an escalating campaign of industrial action by gardaí due to commence on Friday morning - and with full strikes scheduled to begin in just over a fortnight - the focus of the Department of Justice seems to be on averting the disputes rather than highlighting contingency arrangements that would be put in place.

The Department of Justice seems keen to adopt a conciliatory approach at this stage which is aimed at finding agreement with Garda bodies.

Whether such a stance will be maintained if industrial action takes place remains to be seen.

Highly-placed Department of Justice sources are reluctant to state at this stage whether planned strikes would be illegal and whether gardaí could face sanctions if they took part in such industrial action.

The Department of Justice is due to hold talks with the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (Agsi) on Thursday and with the Garda Representative Association (GRA) on Friday.

It is likely to point to the "absolute commitment" given by the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald that gardaí will be given access in future to the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court as well as the Government decision that whatever comes out of a current garda pay review will feed into the overall new Public Service Pay Commission.

The Department of Justice seems keen to stress to the AGSI that the Government has been faithful to an agreement it reached with the association several weeks ago which led to its members voting stongly to accept the Lansdowne Road accord.

This agreement appeared to fall apart following a subsequent meeting between the AGSI leadership and the Department of Public Expenditure.

However the Department of Justice’s argument in the talks this week is likely to be the Government decision on Thursday regarding the terms of reference of the new Public Service Pay Commission is in keeping with the original agreement reached with the Agsi, irrespective of what was said or not said at the controversial meeting with the Department of Public Expenditure.

However, the key issue of pay remains outstanding.

Department of Justice sources said it had not yet responded to the claim for 16.5 percent in pay restoration tabled by the Agsi earlier this month, although this issue will almost certainly be discussed at the talks on Thursday.

However, Department sources are adamant that any resolution to the threatened strikes and industrial action has to be found within the confines of the Lansdowne Road agreement.

They confirmed on Wednesday that there was no money in either its budget or the budget of An Garda Siochana for next year to cover any pay rises over and above those provided for under the Lansdowne Road accord.

Another key issue for the Government, if the planned industrial action and strikes do go ahead will be whether gardaí would be deemed to be outside of the Lansdowne Road agreement and therefore face penalties under financial emergency legislation introduced in 2015.

Rank-and-file gardaí who are members of the GRA are already subject to such penalties and have had incremental pay rises frozen since July.

Because the AGSI was in talks with the Government in July and subsequently backed the Lansdowne Road deal - before appearing to change its mind - its members did not have such penalties imposed.

The Department seems unclear as to whether the Agsi would now be considered to be officially outside the deal given that limited industrial action is scheduled to commence on Friday.

Sources said: “I would not jump the fence about saying they are definitively outside,but they are a good bit along the road, based on their public pronouncements.”

Department of Justice sources would not be drawn on whether members of the Agsi would face a freeze on increments or other penalties, saying they were focused on finding a solution rather than looking at worst case scenarios.