PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan said relative to their counterparts in other armed forces, 'there is a shortfall in the rates of pay that our special forces members earn'. File picture: Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie
The association representing enlisted members of Ireland’s special forces has launched a High Court action to force the Department of Defence to increase their remuneration and bring them closer to what other countries pay their elite troops.
PDForra launched the legal action on behalf of members of the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) after it claimed the Department of Defence refused to increase their allowances as recommended by arbitration.
PDForra said it lodged the case as normal avenues of industrial action and dispute resolution were not available to members of the Permanent Defence Forces because they are prohibited by law from joining a trade union. However, there is a Conciliation and Arbitration (C&A) Scheme provided for in the Defence Forces Act.
The terms of the C&A Scheme allow PDForra to bring forward subjects and claims relevant to its members.
PDForra had previously brought forward a case to an arbitration board for an increase in the special allowance given to members of the elite unit.
The board recommended the allowance be recalibrated through the inclusion of a payment of an additional element of the allowance to be calculated on the basis of an extra €200 per month.
The board also recommended a review of the allowance take place every three years, with the first review to be 2024.
On a number of occasions last year, PDForra said it called on the Department of Defence to clarify when and how the review provided for in arbitration would take place. It still has not.
PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan said his association “sincerely regrets” having to pursue actions like this through the courts.
“Members have to be able to rely upon the ruling of the arbitration board if confidence is to be restored in the C&A Scheme.
"Moreover, we believe that these members of our association render an essential and vital service to the State and are deserving of appropriate pay,” Mr Guinan said.
He added that relative to their counterparts in other armed forces, “there is a shortfall in the rates of pay that our special forces members earn”.
Mr Guinan said the Government had committed to increasing the number of special forces personnel and to having two separate cohorts for air and sea operations.
“This will require significant ongoing specialist training and delivery of instruction to personnel who may wish to join the unit. If we are to incentivise personnel to enter this specialist branch of the Defence Forces, the remuneration has to be appropriate, as they are denied instructors' pay, duty pay and are exempted from the protections afforded by the Working Time Directive, which now apply to the vast majority of our members,” Mr Guinan said.
He added his association — which represents 6,000 enlisted personnel in the army, navy and air corps — believed the positive steps made by the arbitration board had to be followed through to the point of “fairly recognising the service of these invaluable members of our country’s military”.
In response, the Department of Defence claims it continues to actively engage with PDForra via agreed structures on industrial relations matters in respect of all Enlisted Personnel.
“The Public Service Agreement 2024-2026, to which PDForra are party, provides the framework within which proposed adjustments to pay for public servants may be considered,” a department spokeswoman said.