Garda work-to-rule directed for major EU Presidency events

Rank-and-file gardaí are to engage in a work-to-rule action during the biggest days of the EU Presidency.

It comes after Commissioner Justin Kelly said the number of gardaí supporting the action is a “minority” in the organisation.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) had argued that management was in breach of the working-time agreement for members, including around breaks between shifts.

The work-to-rule action will run between the dates of Tuesday November 10 and Saturday November 14.

This includes the European Political Community meeting on November 12, as well as the informal meeting of the EU Heads of State or Government on November 13.

The GRA has also not ruled out further action, with its executive to meet on Monday morning to discuss further action including a withdrawal of services.

It said there had been a “continued over reliance one enforced overtime” during large-scale events associated with Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union which “vastly increased” the workload of members.

All members stationed in the Dublin Metropolitan Region will be urged to report from duty at their home station at the beginning of their tours of duty and wait to be transported to where they should be stationed for their shift.

Members more than 100 kilometres away from their point of duty will be asked not to use their private vehicles to get there.

Mr Kelly said he was “not unsympathetic” to members of gardaí as he acknowledged large events mean “people have to work long hours sometimes in difficult circumstances”.

He added the organisation was “in an unusual situation at the moment” with a large amount of large events around the Presidency, the visit of US President Donald Trump and “some major investigations”.

However, he said the vote taken by the GRA did not represent the majority of the organisation.

The Association said around 45% of its members responded to a two-question survey about taking part in a work-to-rule.

Some 4,182 respondents were prepared for industrial action while 3,977 said they were prepared for it to include EU Presidency events.

Mr Kelly told reporters at the Policing and Community Safety Authority in Co Cavan: “It’s important that I do say: This is a minority of people in the organisation.

“We have we have 18,500 people in the organisation – 14,800 are sworn.

“So this is under 4,000 people have said that they think there should be consideration around industrial action.

“So, in the overall organisation of sworn members, it’s only about a quarter of the people we’re talking about.”

Mr Kelly said gardaí had done “fantastic work” during the Presidency.

“We’ve obviously a very big event coming up in two weeks’ time: the European Political Convention and again, I’m absolutely confident that the members of An Garda Síochána will, as they always do, they’ll put their shoulders to the wheel.”

Mr Kelly said some members had raised concern about too much compulsory and directed overtime.

He added: “This is something that I’ve already discussed with my deputy commissioner in charge of operations.

“So we’ll certainly look at reducing some of the overtime.

“We have some big events that are coming up shortly, but after that we’ll certainly look at reducing the amount of overtime.”

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said Minister Jim O’Callaghan would encourage the GRA to use “well-developed industrial relations processes” to deal with any matters that they wish to be addressed.