PDForra conference: Adjudicator to resolve Naval Service pay row

An adjudicator has finally been appointed to resolve a dispute over allowances paid to Naval Service personnel on migrant rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea, more than a year after such a process was promised.

The independent adjudicator is to meet with PDForra representatives and Department of Defence officials on October 26 to decide if navy personnel who have served on the mission should receive a higher overseas allowance than the rate already received.

The issue was raised last year after the first of the navy ships had been tasked to assist the Italians in rescuing migrants, packed into inadequate and often deathtrap boats by people-smugglers who set them adrift off the Libyan coast.

Due to personnel on the naval ships being armed, PDForra said there were obvious dangers and crews should be entitled to an €80-a-day armed allowance, instead of the €50 a-day unarmed allowance which the Department of Defence had provided.

Department officials argued as it was a humanitarian mission the navy was not entitled to the higher allowance. Pictures were subsequently posted on the Defence Forces Facebook page showing sailors armed with Steyr rifles watching over migrants as they came onboard naval ships. The ships are also armed with frontal canons.

The Naval Service’s most senior officer, Flag Officer Commodore Hugh Tully, supported his personnel and wrote to the Department of Defence saying crews, men and women, should receive the higher allowance but officials still refused to budge.

Since Naval Service operations started in the Mediterranean the LÉ Eithne, LÉ Niamh, LÉ Samuel Beckett, LÉ Róisín, and LÉ James Joyce have each completed 12-week tours of duty.

LÉ Samuel Beckett has just returned to the region for its second tour of duty.

On average each of the ships are crewed by around 50 personnel who volunteer. some are young, poorly-paid, sailors who PDForra say could badly do with the higher allowance.

At last year’s PDForra annual conference, the then defence minister Simon Coveney said he would be happy to send the claim for increased allowances to arbitration and, if a decision fell in favour of a higher allowance, his department would pay. He also said it would be paid retrospectively.

Current minister with responsibility for defence, Paul Kehoe, said he would not comment on the issue as it was due before an adjudicator.

PDForra had been hoping for a speedy resolution to the issue but it could still take some time before the process is finalised.