PDFORRA, the association representing soldiers, sailors and aircrew of the Permanent Defence Force, will reflect upon the report of the Public Service Pay Commission which examined recruitment and retention issues within the military and consult with members before any decision is taken pertaining to the detailed provisions outlined in the document.
“PDFORRA will now undertake a detailed review of the findings made by the Commission. The National Executive will meet in the coming days to consider the totality of recommendations made and brief our members thereafter. The Association will be writing to the Department of Defence to clarify some of the issues contained within the pronouncements from Government. It remains to be seen if the recommendations made are sufficient to retain members who have waited all too long and patiently for this report.
"While some of the recommendations made by the Commission go some way towards meeting the terms of the submission made by our Association, in other instances they fall considerably short. Our Association has pointed out on numerous occasions that there must be some correlation between pay and hours worked. This requires the urgent amendment of the current rates of duty allowances," PDFORRA General Secretary, Gerard Guinan, stated.
The General Secretary noted the high number of departures from the Defence Forces due to economic reasons.
“The cuts to allowances and the failure to recognise the working time of members of the Defence Forces as a resource has resulted in the early departure of thousands of good men and women who were simply forced to leave for economic reasons. The defence organisation will regrettably take a long time to recover from these losses
"The Association welcomes the Governments adopted stance regarding the four outstanding adjudications which pertain to our members. PDFORRA will continue to call on Goverment to live up to the findings made by the Independent Adjudicator in the 2010 and 2013 adjudications," Mr. Guinan concluded.
