Prison officers may ban overtime

PRISON officers in dispute with the Department of Justice may ban working overtime unless agreement is reached on cost-cutting measures.

Talks between the two sides at the Labour Relations Commission have been adjourned until Monday, but the Prison Officers Association said it would have to consider seeking to work their statutory 39-hour week unless officers were given some say in the terms and conditions associated with working additional hours.

“We are being vilified for being forced to work overtime,” said Eugene Dennehy, deputy general secretary of the association, who claimed management wanted to make officers “prisoners of the system.”