Prison officers walk out over checks

MORE than 3,000 prison officers staged a one-hour walkout yesterday in a row over time-keeping and new security measures.

Prison Service bosses have decided that officers can only clock in for work once they have cleared new airport-style security checks.

The checks were introduced to stop smuggling after a sweep of prison cells netted illicit mobile phones, flat-screen televisions and even budgies.

But the Prison Officers’ Association said the new rules meant any delay at prison security would see warders being docked pay for clocking in late.

“You could arrive at work on time and yet still be classed as late if there is a delay,” said association deputy general secretary Eugene Dennehy. “There is only one search unit for all the officers arriving on duty compared to several at Dublin Airport for example.”

Previously officers clocked in at the gates but management has moved the clocks so warders can only clock-in after security.

Yesterday the country’s 3,300 prison officers staged a walkout between 2pm and 3pm in protest. Prisoners were locked in their cells during the one-hour strike.

Now the officers’ association is looking at further action to persuade bosses to move the clocks back to prison entrances so officers can clock in and then undergo the security checks.

The association’s national executive council will meet again next week to decide on the next step.

“There is a solution to this situation if people want to find it. We will sit down next week and take a decision on where we go from there,” said Mr Dennehy.

“I can’t rule anything in or out at this stage.”

Yesterday Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan said prison management had been “unhelpful” in the way they had dealt with the clocking-in issue.

“The relevant industrial relations machinery should be used to solve the current dispute concerning prison security, and this must be done sooner rather than later. In 2003 a mediated agreement was accepted by both the Prison Service and the prison officers.” But he said management were apparently ignoring the agreement by moving the clocks. This is unhelpful as there appears on the face of it to be a genuine point of grievance.”

The industrial unrest follows fresh violence at Dublin’s Mountjoy prison when two officers were doused in scalding water during a brawl between inmates.