Gardaí to come under time act

The Government is to introduce legislation removing the “blanket exclusion” of gardaí from a working hours’ directive, the High Court has heard.

Two gardaí had brought a challenge under the 1997 Working Time Act, from the EU Working Time Directive (WTD), which recognises the need for rest periods during working hours as a basic right of workers. Under the act, where a working day is more than six hours long, every worker is entitled to rest breaks.

The case by the two gardaí did not proceed after the court was told Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor had said in a letter she would bring a bill to Cabinet “in the next six weeks” applying the terms of the WTD to gardaí.

Garda John Gaine and Garda Padraig Harrington brought the case after working eight-hour shifts without any breaks while on witness protection duty between October 2010 and January 2011 when based in Limerick.

During predominantly nighttime shifts, they got neither a rest break or a meal break and were not paid overtime in lieu of such breaks.

The Government’s enactment of Section 3 of the 1997 Organisation of Working Time Act meant the WTD did not apply to either the Garda or Defence Forces, they claimed.

This “blanket exclusion” from the directive meant the 1997 act failed to comply with the directive and the directive had not been properly transposed into Irish law in breach of EU law, they claimed.

They said they were entitled to the protections afforded by the directive but those were denied and they suffered loss and inconvenience. Repeated requests for compensation were not acknowledged.

In proceedings against the Garda Commissioner and the State, they also sought damages for breach of contract and aggravated damages.

When the case was called yesterday, Mr Justice Paul Gilligan was told by Eileen Barrington, counsel for the plaintiffs, it was not proceeding. The matter was adjourned to late November at the request of both sides.