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RANK-AND-FILE gardaí are today mulling over the nuts and bolts of the pay deal handed down by the Labour Court last week.
Following a meeting yesterday in Dublin, in which it was decided to suspend the three remaining strike days planned for this month, the central executive committee of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) sent members a detailed financial breakdown to help them work out how much they stand to gain if they accept it.
These are the main points of the Labour Court recommendations:
The assimilation of rent allowance into core pay and an increase of €500 from January
A payment of €15 per annual leave day, to be brought in from April, worth between €490 and €510 a year
A payment for ‘parading time’ or pre-tour briefings; a 15 minute handover between shifts
The restoration of rent allowance to new recruits
The proposals are by no means clear-cut and gains will vary from garda to garda, with many commenting that they have heard multiple breakdowns of their wages, each with different increase values.
According to the document sent out by the GRA last night, gardaí will make between €997 and €1, 618 a year extra, depending on their years of service, for the additional 15 minutes they work before their shifts.
There will also be a maximum increase in payment for unsocial hours – nights, Sundays and bank holidays – of between €946 and €1,211 a year.
And they will receive up to €510 as part of the new annual leave premium.
For a garda who was been in the force for between seven and 11 years, their basic pay will increase by around €21 a week after tax. An officer on a regular unit, with 17 years of service, stands to receive up to €40 extra a week after tax.
On average, gardaí attached to core units are expected to earn an extra €35 per week after tax.
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The force’s newest recruits stand to make the most if they accept the deal, with an estimated bump in their salaries of €7,000. This is mainly due to the restoration of the rent allowance.
Overtime
However, this deal centres mainly on an increase in overtime payments and allowances, which is a knock-on effect of the assimilation of rent allowance into core pay. For officers on regular units, working nights, weekends and a significant amount of overtime, it will be more beneficial.
For those working in detective units, on 9-5 shifts, in clerical positions or in rural areas where there is little or no overtime, accepting the deal will not result in a substantial change in their take-home pay.
If they accept the deal, members of the force will have to agree to working up to 60 additional hours a year – 15 of those without any pay. They will also commit to a substantial number of productivity measures outlined in the Garda Síochána’s modernisation programme, which will demand they receive additional training and work with new processes and technologies.
The GRA will ballot members by 14 November, with results expected by the end of the month.
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I’ve stayed before I think people are bit mad joining the Gardai. They run into situations i and others are running from. They get hurt, abused, work around the clock, Xmas etc and some people expect them to do it on a poor wage. I pay a lot of taxes and I’m happy for certain services to get pay increase especially the guards. Don’t quote the government line of been broke etc when they took a lot bigger increase in their wages.
@Sean Murphy: 23,000 applied for 300 positions, no one is forcing anyone to join the guards, if the job is so bad, why do people keep applying in their thousands, didn`t they read the job spec, do they not realize what the job involves, [ sometimes] dealing with some of the worst elements in society and the worst situations. Then they have the training and probation period, when they can decide if they want to continue to persue a career in policing.
@Patrick James Walsh: you don’t seem to understand the concept of pay restoration Paddy. Most of them took those jobs largely due to the guarantee of a decent wage.
@Sean Murphy: Amazingly a lot of those who join have family members in the force. Surely they would have the inside track on how easy or hard the job is. They also would know the pay and benefits and must have deemed it worthwhile.
These figures all include overtime – which is not part of anyone’s basic pay. It requires them to work extra hours, making their working day longer. Overtime normally means people have the choice to do it or not – they now don’t have the choice to do some – albeit 15mins per day – buts its every day, for ever! They also have to do extra hours for free. They are getting these small amounts towards getting their pay restored. Minister for Public Expenditure – or is it for Minister for Government Spin and Public Deception? – Paschal Donoghue said today the cost of the deal is €40million and it my have to come out of front line resources, so thats not threatening us all? If it costs €40 million they get over €20 million back in tax. The Social Welfare Christmas bonus is going to cost €197 million – nearly 10 times the actual cost of this supposed sweetheart deal for the GRA. Gardai don’t get a Christmas bonus, or nurses, or firemen, or teachers. Why not take the €20 million out of the Legal Aid budget by limiting the number of times criminals can get it? How much would that save? We spent over €50 million on that last year – money going directly into the pocket of our hard pressed financially struggling solicitors and barristers. Priorities, priorities
@ijlester: I do not see how ot is included as the article is as assumes the reader knows all the T&C’s already included in garda pay, its clear about nothing, despite its headline
Couldn’t afford it before. Now deeper in debt how can we afford public sector pay increases now. We can’t. Which service do we want cut to pay for this or who should be taxed more for it ??? Just curious. Pay rises and tax cuts for all. Sure what can go wrong. Oh wait…
Your point assumes there is some equilibrium that can be reached, that’s simply not true, global debt just increases year on year on year until eventually we return to true servitude. If only people understood the monetary system, some nations may temporarily keep their heads above water but at the expense of numerous other nations.
Most nations issue their own floating currency and have no budget constraint within that currency. The spend their currency into existence at will and then tax it back out in a continuous flow. Money is never a problem. The only limitation they face is the availability of real resources ( land, energy, skilled labour etc ) Those nations e.g. Britain can sustain any size of national debt or deficit once it’s denominated in their own currency as they simply keystoke the money into existence in their central banks. They don’t need to tax or borrow in order to fund government spending. Taxation serves other purposes though. Fundamentally money is just a tool to measure and allocate the real resources produced collectively by the labour of the working class.
Central bank lend it to the government who have to pay it back (with interest) to private central banks from your children’s future taxes. We are basically selling our children to private bankers, biggest scam in history.
No IWB. Central banks are just another arm of the state in most cases. Britain is not borrowing sterling from the Bank of England. The BoE does as it’s instructed by the British state and cannot exist outside of the state. Though every state does allow the commercial banks to create new money everytime they issue a loan. The money is taken out of circulation as the loans are paid back but at a much slower pace. This is in fact the primary mechanism for money creation in capitalist economies.
All the public service pay should be restored and pension contributions reduced
It will only cost 2.5 billion to do that
Just increase income tax simples
2.5 billion, so it’s gone up over a billion euros from the 1.4 billion quoted by the govt last week.
Are you not even put off by the smell of bull coming out as you type? Or do you just get used to it?
These negotiations should be used as an opportunity to get rid of all these silly extras and allowances for uniform cleaning, parading around, cashing paychecks, pension subsidies, healthcare subsidies, unsociable hours allowances, overtime etc and instead just figure out clear, simple fully loaded rates of pay for each level and do away with all this nonsense.
How can they even negotiate properly when it is all broken down into arbitrary bits n pieces, bolted on over the decades.
It’s not the case though. Inflation is historically low at the moment less than .5%. Food, transport, fuel, clothing, mortgage interest rates etc are all historically low. Granted insurance firms and landlords are bucking the trend but inflation is very low.
Can any sane person tell me why should get paid an additional amount on top of your standard holiday pay. If the Garden I get this then surely every other worker in the country should get it as well!
@PaulJ:
from reading it which you may not have its not pay for their holidays. Its because they aren’t guaranteed their days off. If they get told to go to court on a day off they have to go. And that’s not easy if you’ve planned childcare etc around what should have been your days off.
However the courts are on holiday in summer months when most people take holidays
How about this extra money when you actually have to cancel your holiday
If Gardai aren’t guaranteed their days off they should be compensated on an individual basis as one would expect. Why is every single Gardai getting this payout when it might never effect them. It’s just another in the long line of ridiculous allowances that the public sector get for no return.
Because they lose more than their standard holiday pay. Sometimes it costs extra money to take holidays. If a holiday is taken on a Saturday the guard is due to work a night shift for example then they lose the allowance for unsociable hours too. This money is included in their basic pay and salary so yes they should get a holiday allowance to make up for it.
Firstly; Gardaí do not get ‘standard holiday pay’. Gardaí get a flat salary, and then unsocial allowances for nights (1800-0800) and weekends. Secondly, the Courts are open 24/7. They close some of the courts in August, but the courts still continue (just less of them in August), so there is no ‘off season’ with courts. Thirdly, if a Garda is on annual leave and they are given a court date to turn up to, they have to turn up, so this new payment will now give €15 for each annual leave that the Garda can’t avail off or cancel due to work. €15 a day per annual leave day cancelled is unlikely to clear the cost of childcare or even the fuel if you have to drive up from the countryside…even less so if your abroad.
Don’t be surprised if this deal is rejected. It’s pittance for the danger, antisocial hours and frustration with a useless judicial system that favours the criminal, that guards have to endure.
However, the Gardai have lost a lot of public support having been used as ‘pawns’ in the $hell game and the Irishwater fiasco against the very people that they took an oath to serve and protect. That bridge will take a very long time to mend.
Danger anti social hours etc… They knew this before they decided to become gardai and still chose the career.. They need to deal with the low pay they were aware of before joining the force
Karl most guards didnt join on the wages they are on now. Most had their wages cut . Its pay restoration they are looking for not a pay rise…and they still worked the antisocial hours dangerous situations etc and anyone wondering why a gardas job is different to any other job in the public sector name another proffesion that has lost several members in recent years either murdered or knocked down by criminals in cars
Own goal by Fine (lockout) Gael cos If you constantly say “keep the recovery going” then someone somewhere will get the idea that maybe we they want some of that recovery..
How is there no concessions made in this country for public servants in regards to where a person works. Garda in Dublin and Gard in the backarse of Donegal should not be on the same wage same goes for a teacher teaching 35 kids in a class in Finglas compared to maybe 10 in Belmullet. Always with the one size fits all in this country!
Legal aid is ridiculous in this country. So a
Criminal can get represented while the victim pays for that representation through his or her taxes? Where the hell is the logic in that?
This Govt needs to take a step back and see how they are spending our taxes. ….they can give themselves a pay rise, they can give the likes of Irish Water millions they can send millions out in “Humanitarian Aid” but they will make the men and women who protect us beg and grovel and threaten for a mear €34 a week. The should be looking after their own citizens first before looking after those who have never and will never contribute ro helping Ireland, so start wirh us before amy one else. So good on the Gardai for fighting for what they deserve even though it should have never gotten this far
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