Cash-strapped gardaí warn of ‘blue flu’ strike action as new recruits resign

FURIOUS gardaí who have had their salary cut in recent years are considering taking ‘blue flu’ action if their pay is not restored, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.

The Garda Representative Association announced last week that members are to be balloted on a proposed new roster next month, but sources say this will be rejected by its members if their pay concerns are not addressed.

The MoS has also learned that a number of new recruits have tendered their resignation because they say they are unable to support themselves and their families on a garda’s starting salary.

Others have been forced to dip into the Garda Benevolent Fund to make ends meet.

Sources warn there could be a ‘massive split’ in the GRA, followed by action similar to the blue flu of 1998 when 5,000 members of the force called in sick on the same day. As gardaí are not permitted to strike, they expressed their dissatisfaction with pay by calling in sick in the first work stoppage in the history of the force.

GRA members in the Dublin Metropolitan Region’s South Division have already unanimously rejected a proposed new roster ‘until pay talks are entertained’.

Hundreds more gardaí from around the country attended a meeting organised by GRA members in the Cork City Garda Division to voice their anger on the issue.

The meeting – held in the Clayton Hotel Silver Springs in Tivoli – was described by sources as ‘extremely heated’, with some warning of a ‘split’ in the GRA.

‘The gardaí are fed up. They are angry that a new roster is being proposed and pay cuts are not being addressed,’ said one source. ‘There could be a massive split in GRA, something similar to 1998 before the blue flu. Things are going to escalate quickly.

‘The GRA are pushing to trial the roster for one year and then vote on it, but I don’t think that is going to sit.

‘I don’t think they are going to sell it to the troops.’

New recruits start on a salary of €23,000, 10% less than before the economic crash. They also lost a €4,000 rent allowance payment that had been in place of more than 40 years. The starting salary is almost €8,000 less than that of

‘Things are going to escalate quickly’

gardaí who graduated from Templemore in 2009, when recruitment was frozen.

‘At least three recruits have stuck in their resignations over the last week or two, particularly some of the lads who were sent up to the border. The cost of going up when they were already in debt was just too much,’ said a source.

He added: ‘It is not really the roster that’s the issue, it’s pay. You’d get as much money on the door of a nightclub. It’s at the point that new recruits who have families are automatically entitled to the family income supplement.’

The proposed new roster would require gardaí to work two early shifts, two late shifts and two nights shifts over a 40.4-hour week. The roster has come in for much criticism, including from the Garda Inspectorate whose recent report said it put gardaí on duty ‘at the wrong times’.

A source added: ‘I think in general the lads on the ground don’t have a major difficulties with that, just that they are changing their work conditions again with no rollback on all the cuts imposed.

‘Obviously some people won’t like it for personal reasons such as organising different childminders, while others will like it because they’ll have some daytime shifts and not all nights for a month.’ Another source said: ‘The guard on the ground is sick of it.’

‘The guard on the ground is sick of it’