Conference Report 2016

CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REPORT
Association that allowances subject to taxation
should be pensionable. Hence, the GRA requests
that this Review assesses the category (b)
allowances (above), with a view to their reclassification.
5.57 Scope for appropriate initiatives in this regard has
been provided via the Public Accounts Committee in
its Report on Public Sector Allowances (2012) when
it recommended the ‘streamlining and simplification’
of the structures that have built up around garda
pay. Such initiatives serving to subsume
allowances into pay may well remove the illusion
that they constitute a ‘perk’; and are framed as such
in public discourse.
5.58 The relevant government minister (on initiating a
review of allowances across the public sector)
acknowledged the point that a considerable portion
of the 800 allowances under review would be better
described as ‘pay’ and even instanced his own
‘allowance’ as a minister paid on top of his salary as
a TD. He noted, “it’s not an allowance, it’s my
wages”; and also cited the principal’s allowance
paid to teachers (added to their basic salary and
based on the size of the school) as ‘pay’ rather than
an ‘allowance’.
5.59 This accords with the Garda Commissioner’s
assessment, on advising the Public Accounts
Committee that some of the allowances for review
for both new entrants and existing beneficiaries
could be consolidated into basic pay following
negotiation as:
“…the need to match demand with the nature of the
employment dictates where allowances should be
paid and…a number of allowances could be
subsumed into basic pay.”
5.60 Whilst supportive of the Minister and the
Commissioner on this point, it would be remiss of
the Association not to point out that the task will not
always be as straightforward as it appears on the
basis of an initial superficial consideration.
Discriminatory Treatment of unsocial hours
5.61 As outlined by a host of authoritative sources,
overtime and unsocial working hours are an integral
feature of working life in An Garda Síochána. As
elaborated upon by the independent Industrial
Relations News Report in 2009:
“Official sources also argue that…overtime provides the
Garda Commissioner with the ability to allocate
resources to particular situations and peak demands, as
and when the needs arise.”
5.62 An Garda Síochána cannot function unless staff
work overtime. This necessity is underlined that
members are directed to work overtime.
5.63 The disadvantageous divisor (1/41) deployed to
calculate overtime and unsocial working
arrangements for gardaí becomes even more
disconcerting as many other public service
occupations weekly pay is divided by lesser
divisors in premium payment calculations. It is
reported that a divisor of 35 hours is used for both
health sector and local government clerical staff
and for local authority outdoor workers including
full-time Fire Service personnel, a 37.5 hours divisor
applies to nurses and a 39 hours divisor applies
extensively for health sector attendants and
support staff.
5.64 An independent review in February 2008
recommended that the divisor for GRA members be
brought into line with that deployed for other public
sector employees. To date, the government has
failed to implement this recommendation. The
arbitration report stipulates that:
“The present Garda divisor for overtime of 41 is an
anomaly which has not been reconsidered since its
introduction in 1974. At the hearing before the
Arbitration Board the GRA expressed a measure of
understandable frustration that this situation, which
it regards as irrational, has remained in place for so
long.
“The Arbitration Board is of the opinion that it would
be unseemly to let the matter drag on indefinitely
and so the Board recommends that when the terms
of the Towards 2016 Social Partnership Agreement
expires the parties should make a determined effort
to bring forward a solution that is equitable in
settling on the proper divisor for the gardaí.”
5.65 Given that the government subsequently set aside
the provisions of the Towards 2016 Social
Partnership Agreement of which this Association
had no part in the negotiation of, it is incumbent
upon this Review to appropriately address the
matter. Payment to the Association’s membership
for working unsocial hours cannot be categorised
as ‘excessive’.
5.66 The rate of remuneration paid is considerably less
than applies to large swathes of the public and
private sector. It is also pertinent that overtime has
traditionally been paid in An Garda Síochána at time
38 Garda Representative Association