The association representing the country’s rank and file Defence Forces has criticised the Government’s continued refusal to acknowledge its right to get affiliation with the Irish College of Trade Unions and be represented at national pay talks.
PDForra, which represents more than 6,500 enlisted members in the army, naval service, and air corps, is becoming increasingly frustrated by “constant delays and prevarication” from the Government in the face of overwhelming legal decisions, allied to a speech at its annual conference by President Michael D Higgins who said everybody has the right, if they wish, to be affiliated to a trade union.
Gerard Guinan, PDForra's general secretary, said its members “are becoming increasingly despondent” at the lack of movement on the grant of association to ICTU, despite it also being recommended in the recently published report on Commission on the Future of the Defence Forces.
Mr Guinan said PDForra is acutely aware that talks on the successor to the current national pay agreement, Building Momentum, will be commencing in the next few weeks.
"The curtailment of our association’s ability to engage constructively with the Public Services Committee of ICTU will, if not corrected shortly, place our members on the back foot when talks fully commence," he said.
It has to be remembered that PDForra has been seeking the grant of associate membership with ICTU since 1994.
"Bodies such as the European Social Rights Committee and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe have made positive recommendations regarding the potential grant of associate membership to umbrella groups like ICTU by armed forces."
He noted that the recently published Commission on the Future of the Defence Forces was positively disposed towards the grant of associate membership.
A former Defence Forces chief of staff and a number of former chiefs of staffs from other European armed forces sat on the Commission.
"This inspired hope among PDForra members that the matter would be resolved in the short term," Mr Guinan said.
"However, here we are, on the cusp of the commencement of new national pay talks and our association remains in the wilderness in industrial relations terms."
PDForra has given assurances that its members will never take part in any industrial action and that it only wants ICTU affiliation to represent it at pay talks and Defence Minister Simon Coveney to make a decision on affiliation now.
The constant delay and prevarication is difficult to take when you understand how much is riding on the outcome of this decision.
Meanwhile senior officials from RACO, the association which represent more than 1,100 of the country’s military officers, have embarked on a nationwide tour to gauge the view of their members on “the pros and cons” of them also seeking affiliation with ICTU ahead of an electronic ballot next month.
The issue was discussed at that their annual conference last November at which several speakers maintained that they should follow PDForra’s attempts to align with ICTU and get representation at national pay talks.