LABOUR HAS PROMISED to fully implement the Working Time Directive within the Irish Defence Forces, so that personnel are fairly compensated for working overtime, if elected into government.

The promise was included in the Labour party’s plan to ‘strengthen’ the Defence Forces, which includes a vow to increase the force by 2,000 people, establish an independent pay and pension review panel and protect Irish neutrality. 

Currently, the government has not fully implemented the EU’s Working Time Directive that outlines that any worker who is on the clock outside of rosters hours must be fairly compensated for members of the Defence Forces.

It also states that workers cannot work more than 48 hours in a week along with other measures to validate their employment rights such as being paid for overtime and ensuring leaders document a shortfall in numbers. 

The issue has plagued the Defence Forces for years and military representative organisations have blamed the issue of the Department of Defence’s failure to adequately record the working hours of its members.

The Journal previously reported that Defence Forces’ representative organisations have said the failure to implement the directive is moving the organisation in the “wrong direction” and leading to a drop in personnel. 

While there are plans to begin implementing the directive, organisations such as Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) believe the rollout has not come quick enough.

Labour’s defence spokesperson, senator Mark Wall, today said he agrees that the roll out has been too slow and said that introducing the directive would improve members’ work-life balance and lead to new members, especially female applicants, joining the force.

“Labour will provide for overtime when working outside normal hours and time off in lieu,” Wall said today, adding that incentives are needed in the Force, through increasing military spending, to attract new members.

RACO addressed this issue during its most-recent annual conference in Co Carlow last month. The organisation said that the failure to introduce such measures has significantly impacted morale within the force in recent years.

Lieutenant Colonel Conor King, the General Secretary of RACO, has said that he believes the political will to introduce the directive is there, but clerical issues within the Department of Defence is what is hampering progress.

Wall, a general election candidate for Kildare South, also outlined plans to renovate existing properties on the Curragh Defence Force basecamp to house members and their families. 

He also said that the Department of Defence would establish relationships with Approved Housing Bodies to develop non-essential sites owned by the Defence Forces to develop housing on that land with the Labour Party in government.

“We need to secure decent pay and conditions for members and deliver infrastructure to make us less reliant on other countries,” Wall said.

With reporting by Niall O’Connor