Prison officers to vote on overtime deal

The Prison Officers' Association is to ballot its members on the overtime deal being offered by the Irish Prison Service. The decision to hold the ballot comes after talks between the officers and the prison service collapsed this week.

The prison service has offered an annual payment of up to €10,300 to prison officers if they agree to work 360 hours of overtime every year. The money will be paid even if the hours are not worked.

The offer forms the main part of a plan by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to cut the annual overtime bill in the State's prisons, which will top €64 million this year.

However, the prison officers want a slightly higher amount, of €10,800, in exchange for annualised hours. The POA wants a pension contribution to be paid on much of that sum.

It is also pressing for officers to be paid for their lunch break and has asked the prison service to abandon a plan which would reduce annual leave for prison officers by around six days per year.

The officers and the prison service have been engaged in talks for almost four months, but the negotiations broke down on Wednesday.

Last night the POA said it had written to Mr Seán Aylward, the director general of the Irish Prison Service, asking him to send it the service's overtime offer in writing so that it could put it to its members by way of ballot.

The POA said it was anxious to find a solution to the issue and believed a ballot presented a real opportunity for progress.

After the talks collapsed on Wednesday, Mr Aylward said he would be presenting a number of options to the Department of Justice within the next few days.

Asked if these included measures such as privatisation and some prison closures, he said he was not ruling anything in or anything out.

Mr Aylward accused the POA of engaging in "Alice in Wonderland-style industrial relations" and said its proposals would have cost more than the existing €64 million prison overtime budget.