The Garda Representative Association is to stand down planned industrial action in the form of a work-to-rule which was due to commence tomorrow.
It follows a meeting tonight of the GRA’s Central Executive Committee.
It voted to stand down the work-to-rule position for this week after making what it described as “significant progress with the Garda Commissioner”.
Members were planning to engage in five days of work-to-rule action this week which would have coincided with two major leaders summits being held in Dublin as part of Ireland’s EU Presidency.
The GRA had accused garda management of breaching working time agreements and of being over-reliant on enforced overtime.
Earlier, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly announced enhanced overtime arrangements for Thursday’s European Political Community (EPC) meeting.
In a message to gardaí, the Commissioner said that following feedback he was introducing measures for Gardaí working on the EPC to enhance their welfare and comfort.
“For the EPC, members who are directed to travel on overtime on a rest day that has not been cancelled are to be paid overtime for the equivalent number of hours as their normal tour duration up to a maximum of 6 hours,” according to the message.
“Ongoing matters related to travel time are being considered by the Rosters Review Group.”
“Where a member is travelling a distance of 50 to 100km and would not ordinarily be able to claim an overnight allowance, a member may submit a claim on an exceptional basis,” the Commissioner said.
Other changes outlined in the message relate to areas such as travel payments and late hotel checkouts.
In a message to GRA members, the association said it is now satisfied with the assurances and commitments given by garda management.
“We regard these as a number of ‘wins’ for you the members, to reflect the extraordinary work you have delivered,” the GRA said.
“We wish to thank Commissioner Kelly and his team for their positive engagement, but most of all, we want to thank the GRA membership for their continued patience and dedication to duty during these intense negotiations,” the association added.
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