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The organization representing the Defense Forces officer ranks has claimed it was “excluded” from the talks on a new public service pay deal, which concluded on Friday.
After a meeting tonight, the Association of Representatives of Commissioned Officers (RACO) said its National Executive had expressed “… considerable disappointment in the way our members were effectively misled as to their ability to participate in salary talks. as equal partners. “
Since the representative bodies of the members of the Defense Forces and of An Garda Síochána cannot affiliate with the Irish Trade Union Congress, they must carry out salary negotiations with the Government through a separate chapter, while in the main conversations , ICTU affiliated unions are represented by four key negotiators from Forsa, SIPTU, INMO and INTO.
The Defense Forces and Garda bodies have always opposed this structure and demanded “parity of esteem”.
However, there was a furor last Friday when the final document “Building Momentum” was released to the media before bodies outside the ICTU saw it.
Speaking after tonight’s meeting, RACO Secretary General Conor King said the executive had instructed the association to seek an urgent meeting with Defense and Foreign Minister Simon Coveney to discuss the conducting the salary talks, “… and the fact that the Defense Forces and representative associations were effectively excluded from the process, despite guarantees to the contrary.”
The RACO said that their status of “restricted” labor relations has not been recognized, and that no importance has been given to the prohibition of industrial action that applies to them.
The association said members highlighted the ability of those willing to take industrial action to achieve positive results from the talks.
“The National Executive feels that it will have no choice but to recommend a sector payment round for all members, and hopes that the well-documented organizational retention problems can be resolved by the Defense Commission,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, the Department of Reform and Public Expenditure confirmed that parallel agreements had been agreed during the course of the “Building Momentum” negotiation, which are not included in the main body of the agreement.
“Some clarification will have to be issued after a negotiation of this scale and complexity, but nothing that adds to the cost of payment of 906 million euros,” said a spokesman.
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