PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan said the Government must provide military personnel with appropriate overtime payments as 'they lag far behind' what their counterparts in other sectors of the public service get. Picture: Paul Mealey
Representative bodies for serving Defence Forces personnel have made a joint complaint under the European Social Charter against the Government for its failure to pay proper overtime to their members.
Some personnel are getting paid just €60, before tax, for working 16 hours' overtime, prompting a complaint by PDForra, which represents ordinary members, and Raco, which represents officers.
PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan said the Government must provide military personnel with appropriate overtime payments as “they lag far behind” what their counterparts in other sectors of the public service get.
“Presently, our association's prohibited from seeking increases to payments associated with working additional hours. Currently, rates of duty payments vary depending upon the nature of the duty undertaken. We’ve consistently highlighted the negative impact of current rates on morale across the organisation,” Mr Guinan said.
He said while the Department of Defence has consistently pointed to improved rates of basic pay, it had failed to address the adequacy of allowance rates when overtime is calculated.
“It’s becoming far too frequent that our association is having to highlight the issue of allowances that would normally be considered overtime by workers outside of the Defence Forces through the press.
"The lack of an appropriate allowance system, coupled with the failure to implement the Working Time Direct in a fair manner, has had consequences: namely the dysfunctional turnover rates and inability to recruit personnel in sufficient numbers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the PDForra conference in Killarney heard PDForra’s successful battle for trade union affiliation, granted last year, had led other European military representative associations to seek the same right.
Military representative associations in Portugal and Spain have followed in PDForra’s footsteps by making an official complaint under the European Social Charter that their members' human rights were being denied as both countries were refusing to allow similar affiliations.
It is understood Italian military representatives are about to lodge a similar complaint.
PDForra had a long struggle to gain affiliation to the umbrella union body Ictu. It lodged a complaint under the European Social Charter in 2014.