asked the Minister for Justice if he will outline the terms on which the dispute between his Department and the Prison Officers' Association was recently settled; and the plans his Department have for implementing and monitoring the terms of the settlement.
Written Answers. - Prison Officers' Association Dispute.
23.
The House may recollect that a dispute between my Department and the Prison Officers' Association arose last year out of the engagement of 200 additional prison officers, accompanied by the implementation of new rosters for basic grade staff which had the objective of reducing overtime expenditure by £4 million per annum.
In October last an independent review of rostering arrangements in the prison service, conducted by the chairman of the Employer-Labour Conference, produced a roster which was unacceptable as it would have involved significant additional expenditure. Since then, very detailed discussions have been taking place between my Department and the Prison Officers' Association. Agreement has recently been reached on the introduction of revised attendance rosters, which do not have these cost implications, for basic grade prison officers in the various institutions.
The principal elements of this agreement are: (1) agreed rosters which achieve a mutually satisfactory balance between the objectives of management and staff and which do not have any on-going additional cost implications will be implemented, and (2) a once-off payment of £1,000 per officer will be made to staff affected by the revised arrangements.
I am pleased that it has been possible to devise an agreed solution to the rostering problem which enables overtime savings to be achieved on an on-going basis while also providing significantly improved working arrangements from the point of view of staff.
The revised rostering arrangements have already been implemented in four of the institutions concerned and they will become operational in the other institutions in the coming weeks. Their operation will be monitored closely by my Department in conjunction with the on-going review of prison staffing and overtime working.