State 'saved millions by not paying Defence Forces personnel overtime'
Recently obtained figures by Defence Forces representative associations appear to show a shortfall of annual leave to their members — which are also valued at millions of euro. File picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie
The State has saved millions of euro by not paying overtime to members of the Defence Forces for decades, according to a claim submitted to the European Social Rights Committee (ESRC).
EUROMIL, the umbrella body for European military associations, has sent a document to the ESRC, written by a senior Irish civil servant in the early 1990s, which shows the government was advised that the military should be legally covered by the Working Time Directive (WTD). As a consequence, Defence Forces personnel should be entitled to the same overtime payments and restrictions on working hours as other public servants.
EUROMIL submitted the complaint on behalf of Raco, which represents officers, and PDForra for enlisted personnel, stating successive governments had therefore breached the social rights of Defence Forces members under Articles 2.1, 2.2 and 4.2 by denying them overtime.
The government had also been advised in 1990 by the Gleeson Commission that the Defence Forces did not have a system of recording the working time of military personnel, which also forms part of the complaint to the ESRC.
The commission said it was surprised at the omission, as such records would normally be expected to be maintained by a large organisation.
Meanwhile, recently obtained figures by the representative associations appear to show a shortfall of annual leave to their members — which are also valued at millions of euro. They have also been supplied to the ESRC.
The current Government has started discussions about the implementation of the WTD for the Defence Forces. However, both representative associations fear military personnel will be exempted from “large swathes” of the legislation.
PDForra general secretary Gerard Guinan said he was concerned there may be several exemptions imposed, otherwise the State would have to properly resource the Defence Forces with personnel as it is currently seriously deficient in numbers.
He has called on Defence Minister Micheál Martin to ensure the implementation of the WTD “takes account of the need for just, fair and humane working conditions for all Defence Force members”.
Raco president Commandant Martin Ryan said he was also worried derogations on the WTD legislation would be imposed to exclude certain duties carried out by the military.
He said one way to address the retention crisis was with the introduction of the WTD because, if implemented properly, it would provide personnel with a better work-life balance.
“When you don’t record time worked you can’t tell, but there’s no doubt there was an awful lot of free labour. We don’t know how long our normal working day or week is,” Comdt Ryan said.
He said the Government had repeatedly said the "numbers issue" needs to be countered with increased recruitment and retention “but is very slow” addressing this.
The Department of Defence said Mr Martin hopes to have talks concluded on the WTD with military management and the representative association as soon as possible, which will then "enable engagement with the Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment to progress the appropriate legislative framework".
