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RANK AND FILE gardaí have voted against proposed changes to their roster.
The Garda Representative Organisation (GRA) saw more than 5,500 of its members (over 50%) vote on the issue.
It was rejected with a strong majority of 68.8% to 31.2%.
The new working time agreement would have seen a change to how gardaí are rostered, with a shift to working six ten-hour days in a row, followed by one rest day and three days off.
In a statement today the GRA has said that the new roster had “promised improvements from fatigue and work-life balance perspective and had been endorsed by the GRA central executive committee”.
Prior to the vote the committee had recommended that members approve the new roster.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie last month regional garda representatives explained that there was frustration among members that an altered roster was being proposed prior to pay being restored.
‘Out of step’
Sources within the organisation today described the result as a “protest vote”.
“People are annoyed about the slowness of the review of An Garda Síochána and the slowness of pay restoration,” one said.
The rejection of the proposals points to discontent among gardaí with the representative organisation.
“The executive aren’t in touch with the frontline, they’re not in tune with feelings of the frontline,” one garda explained.
They held seminars all over the country and tried to push it – they seem to be out of step with the feelings of the members.
“There was a perception put out there that this was a membership roster – it wasn’t. It was a management roster. Management proposed something similar five years ago,” another said.
The proposed changes would have seen gardaí finishing their last shift at 7am. Those who argued against the new roster said it was disingenuous to describe a day someone would lose because they would be sleeping as a day off.
“People aren’t interested in offering productivity until the pay issue is addressed,” they said.
Responding to the result of the ballot, GRA president Dermot O’Brien said the association “is a democratic organisation based on democratic decisions made by its members”.
We will now take this result on board and look at next steps. The number one priority of the Garda Representative Association is pay restoration and pay increases for our members.
- With reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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Article solely about promoting women.
When will there be an article promoting men just because they are men.
@Roger Bond: oh dear! Promoting women? I think you didn’t read any of this. This about economists who are predominantly men. I even named one of the very important ones & then the need for more women to be involved in economics. Its not necessarily promoting more encouragement for women’s involvement.
“There is a cure for poverty it has a name. Its called the empowerment of women and nowhere that it has been tried does it not work. Give women power over their reproductive cycle and throw in some seeds or credit & watch the floor of the society they live in raise up not just for women but for everyone”.
Christopher Hitchens. You clearly missed the point. We want better economic outcomes. Women can help.
Economics should be a compulsory subject in school.
Most people have no idea what it’s about and it shows.
Mcwilliams says we need more women in the rooms where deals are being done. We are missing a womans approach to solving economic issues. Since signing up to his podcasts 3 years ago i have been hugely impressed by people like Marla Dukharan & others who are formidable individuals with lots of new ideas.
Again pushing for parity women/men when it’s impossible.
Obviously economists are mostly men because mostly men study economics, it has always been the case and won’t change.
Interesting article / I would like to pose a question to Lisa Ryan who specialises in areas such as the economics on electric vehicle adoption etc / this has me puzzled / Ireland govt announces that by 2030 we want to sell a million electric cars on Irish roads , on a project some years back i researched the revenue intake of Irish exchequer for all motor taxes ( incl vet tax diesel trade motor tax petroleum sales etc ) and the figure per year was circa €5bn , every litre of diesel includes up to 70c in govt tax , so if these taxes are no longer applicable on electric cars and if there are lower motor taxes in electric / the loss to the exchequer will be billions / circa 50bn over a decade / how will the economics work of electric cars don’t pay these levels of taxes ?
Good, interesting, positive article. Despite knowing Sustainability, I didn’t know the diverse facets of economist roles. It gives me hope, I hope ESG reporting and diverse thinking about what is valuable comes along at speed
Very good, but not all strong women can be board members in cool suits. This impression is rather patronizing to women I find, as if pigeon-holing them from the 1950′s kitchen to the 2020′s office. And what does it say to other equally aspiring women ‘NOT’ in a boardroom sporting a ‘serious business hairstyle’? Does it mean if you’re not a business woman you’re a failure? A new stereotyped female has been created.
@Keth Tgi: men are not failures if they don’t make it to the boardroom. Both sexes with relevant ability need inspiring role models.
Sick to the back of my teeth hearing about the plight of women and how under-represented they are and how society has always mistreated them and how we should be empowering them.
If women’s presence is lesser in some jobs then it’s more plentiful in others which also means men are fewer in those jobs (nursing, air hosting, …) But we never hear that angle of the story. Women would never be clambering for the top jobs down coal mines or emptying bins or any of the other dirty work men mostly do.
It’s moaning to manipulate. If violence is a negative trait of _some_ men then manipulation and self pity is definitely a negative trait of _some_ women.
We are being told that developed countries are not having enough children to replace the elderly who are living longer anyway thus creating an economic challenge of its own .As women alone can reproduce and it interferes majorly with careers it is not surprising that women tend to try and compromise by going for family friendly careers .Enonomics is not I think an obvious one there not to mention the fact that it’s very elitist .So we need women to have children and for childcare to be made affordable so we will have replacement workers and a balanced society .
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