'Scandal' that Defence Forces officers paid less than €4 an hour overtime on 24-hour shifts
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It’s “a scandal” that some Defence Forces officers undertaking mandatory 24-hour duties three times a month are getting as little as €3.89 an hour for the 16 hours of overtime involved in those shifts.
The national minimum wage is set to increase to €12.50 per hour, but the 24-hour duty rate has not been increased for many years.
Raco president Commandant Martin Ryan described it as “a scandal” especially as often they will have to pay for childcare when doing these duties.
The association is calling on the Government to drastically increase the 24-hour rate, especially as gardaí get time and a half as a minimum for overtime.
When troops are called out to help in weather-related emergencies, they do not get any overtime payments, which is also considered very unfair because they are often working alongside local authority employees who do.
Meanwhile, young officers who joined after 2013 are on a reduced pension compared to older colleagues. And because they must retire at 58, unlike other public servants, they are being put at a financial disadvantage.
A survey undertaken by Raco showed 42% of officers plan to voluntarily leave the service in the next 10 years. Most of them are in the post-2013 cohort and want to leave early so they can get a better-paid job elsewhere and a better pension pot.
One young officer told the conference if the retention crisis is bad now it will be catastrophic within the next decade because of this.
“It’s not that they want to leave, they have to leave,” Raco president Martin Ryan said.
Raco has called for the introduction of a supplementary pension for these personnel.
Meanwhile, the association’s conference in Tullow, Co Carlow, heard on average officers lose out on 10 days of leave every year, due in part because they cannot get time off because of the personnel crisis.
Delegates said in other organisations or businesses, some financial compensation would be forthcoming and this should be done by the Department of Defence as well. Another motion called on the Government to make it financially more attractive for personnel to sign up for overseas peacekeeping missions.
Comdt Ryan said the introduction and compliance with the Working Time Directive is the only true way that military personnel’s time, wellbeing and working conditions would be protected, which should positively impact retention.
Minister for State at the Department of Transport Jack Chambers, who was deputising for Michael Martin at the conference, said the Defence Minister plans to publish a draft of the planned WTD implementation in the Defence Forces before the end of this year and put it into legislation in 2024.