Army officers have voted to accept a controversial pay deal that the government hopes will stop them from walking.
The Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO), the body representing some 1,100 officers in the Defence Forces, balloted members at their biennial conference in Naas, Co Kildare on Monday.
General Secretary, Conor King, this afternoon welcomed the decision to accept the recommendations within the Public Service Pay Commission Report.
PDFORRA, which represents rank-and-file soldiers, sailors and airmen, is due to hold a vote on the pay deal at its annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow next week.
But Mr King warned that this is just a starting point and these small improvements in pay will not be enough to stem a mass exodus.
He said that under the proposed 10% military service allowance increase, the lowest ranking private soldier would receive a gross daily pay increase of 96 cent, rising to €1.38 for a commandant and between €1.65 and €1.80 for a non-commissioned officer.
He told the Irish Mirror: “That does not amount to a significant change in people’s take home pay.
“There are some positives in it. It’s not all bad news, but on its own it is not going to be enough to keep people.
“Approval will not be an acknowledgement that everything is OK. It’s just the start.
"This vote should not be seen as an acknowledgement that the retention crisis in the Defence Forces is close to being solved.
“The government are fully aware of what needs to be done to solve this retention crisis and make the Defence Forces an employer of choice once again.”
This long-awaited deal has been three years in the making and morale within the ranks is at an all time low.
Conor King said: “The Department of Defence started the Pay Commission process in 2016 and the report was finally published in July 2019. In that period we haemorrhaged over 1,300 people.”
He continued: “It was heralded as this huge suite of measures to retain members.
“Details of the report were leaked in early May which gave people a flavour of what was to come.
“They flew a kite and it made its way around all of the media.
“Even though the reaction was negative, the final report when published in July was unchanged.
“In the month that this report was published, July, nearly 100 people left - 97 to be specific.”
“That does not amount to a significant change in people’s take home pay.
“There are some positives in it. It’s not all bad news, but on its own it is not going to be enough to keep people."
The government’s goal is to restore troops to 9,500. But instead of increasing manpower, RACO predicts 882 departures for the year ending 2019.
He said: “What we are at now is 8,650 (total number of Defence Forces members).
“We had 11,500 in 2008. At the moment turnover rate yearly is 10.3%.
“We are never going to get back to 9,500 with a turnover rate that high.
“The only way we improve this is to give them a reason to stay, a way to feed their families.”
