Prison Officers - Overtime and Absenteeism

M

Mers1

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What are peoples views on prison officers receiveing o/t regardless whether they work for it or not and taking huge amounts of sick leave and also being paid.

I notice that this is coming back into public news again and was wondering if anyone has any thoughts. Personally I dont see that it is justified
 
they deserve every penny they get..........
clear and present danger of attack.......
Long hours and mind numbing position with ever present risk of meeting one's Maker.
 
the ones who are able to live and maintain families in remote areas of the country while working (living in second home/renting) in the capital by clocking up vast amounts of overtime and regular time in one week (working time act works in their favour) and then take leave and are absent from work for large chunks of "hometime" - yep these disgust me and leave me thinking is this country even going to manage the public sector properly at all.

The money they can rack up shows how the tail wags the dog in our public system.

Having said that I wouldn't do it myself,
 
Fact Number 1 - the former PD minister for justice eliminated overtime as it was know it in previous format and yes plenty of older household providers became, in reality, institutionalised by the system in the past, these days things are different. ( the main breadwinner living the other side of the country for many years can hardly be viewed as a luxury?? while living in digs in some kip to support a family far away?? You know if you want to work in Cork prison you might have to work in Dublin for 11,12,13 years before you get a transfer)
Fact Number 2 - There is now complusory overtime in place and this works quarterly in advance in most cases, and especially in the case of more junior staff you just have to do whats given to you end of ( I might add that you might also have no interest in doing ANY overtime but you will be compelled by the minister)
Fact Number 3 - I cant understand how people can possibly believe that the prison service is alien to the rest of the planet and they get paid when they are sick, they do not, like many many other areas they will change to social welfare if out longer than the common cold. Many Prison Officers have income continuance in place for this reason and the level of attacks and stress within the job that might have them out any longer.

Strangely enough the entry level pay for the prison service is around 28k with 3 years probation, I cant see many in the line for those positions can you??
 
markowitzman said:
they deserve every penny they get..........
clear and present danger of attack.......
Long hours and mind numbing position with ever present risk of meeting one's Maker.
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Well considering how lax the prison system seems to be run they don't deserve every penny they get.
 
with all due respect to the last poster local management is responsible for all security issues relating to that particular prison and is dictated to all staff, I think the new prison in Thorton Hall is a step in the direction and it will provide EVERYONE involved with better conditions and security
 
Bottom line is once again the government allow situations develop where state funded bodies are allowed let their costs spiral out of control, the relevent department should have been keeping a far tighter reign on the expenses of the different areas it was responsible for; be it dept of Enterprise failing to reign in & efficiently manage spending in FAS or dept of justice failing to reign in & efficiently manage spending in Prison Service or Gardai, and i wont even get started with the department of Health.

If a situation exists in any employment where employees can take advantage then there will always be some folk who will take advantage of the system....the issue is allowing a situation to exist where it can be exploited.
 
Jody said:
Strangely enough the entry level pay for the prison service is around 28k with 3 years probation, I cant see many in the line for those positions can you??
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Many jobs have a low starting salary which is improved with overtime, as far as i know there is a queue of folks trying to get into the business actually - we should know more at the end of the present recruitment which happens every few years.
I suppose when i mention that someone manages to rent in Dublin and house and support a family in the west/ south then one should be more interested in how folks can decide it is better than the alternative. If it was terrible then people wouldn't do it.
 
I think in fairness that the rent in Dublin is a little of the old school prison officers back when things where cheaper and trust me when I say that I know many other digs shared by many of them are not what you expect when it comes to luxury and can be more in line with sub standard student accommodation. Most will commute and try to work 24 hour shifts to get home now. Also the pay does not increase that much, small increments over 10 years like many other jobs and I would think that the reason why its a little attractive now, if I can even say that word is because of our current economic climate and it still is technically a job for life. Most people enter that job for that reason along, job security I am afraid. And just to go back to the overtime thing its is gone in the format that it previously existed since MMcD
 
Opps sorry I got a figure wrong there the starting pay is 25,876 and apparantly you have until the 9th October to apply
 
rmelly said:
Yeah, sorry. Maybe you can answer something for me...do prisoners with TV's need a TV licence?
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I think they are exempt as long as the tvs are in their cells and at least 37" in size, the owner must also be in possession of a mobile phone to qualify for this refief.
 
MrMan said:
I think they are exempt as long as the tvs are in their cells and at least 37" in size, the owner must also be in possession of a mobile phone to qualify for this refief.
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LOL. At least thats cleared that up.
 
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