The withdrawal of sick pay from prison officers who take more than 60 days of sick leave over four years is included in Government plans to reduce the overtime and sick-leave bills in the prison service.
Computerised sick-leave reports are to be compiled for each prison, according to the Department of Justice's prisons personnel business plan.
In the case of officers with more than 60 days' sick leave in the previous four years, their prison governor is to be consulted and necessary action taken, "including withdrawal of the privilege of sick leave with pay."
Prison governors are also to be given the power to withdraw annual pay rises for prison officers "whose attendance record is poor". And governors will be asked to agree that officers who are on sick leave and "not fit for the full range of duties" be returned to work "on a restricted basis".
The business plan for 1998-99, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, states that an "unknown number" of working prison officers are claiming disability allowances.
"We do not know what disability they are claiming to have (and the Department of Social Welfare won't tell us)", the report states. "We need to know if they are able to fulfil their full operational duties."
The Department proposes that officials should obtain a list of these officers, which would be given to prison governors. The governors would then interview the officers and ascertain their fitness for the job.
The overtime bill for prison officers will be more than £30 million this year, compared to £14 million in 1994. The average sick leave in the staff of approximately 2,500 prison officers is 17 days a year.
The plan was approved by the Department's management advisory committee earlier this year. The new interim prisons agency is to be set up early next year and the efficiency measures agreed by the Prison Officers' Association in return for a 12.9 per cent pay increase last year are to be implemented.
Most of these measures had been put on hold pending agreement on a pay deal for prison governors.
Staff circulars sent to prisons, warning officers about unacceptable levels of sick leave and late attendances, have become "targets just below which certain officers set their aim", the plan says. It recommends that these warning letters be examined "to see if this unintended outcome can be eliminated."
In a review of prison overtime carried out by a British prison management consultant, Mr Gordon Lakes, a system of prisoner categorisation was suggested, whereby the security risk of prisoners would be assessed. A cost review group, chaired by Mr Lakes, is currently looking at each of the State's 15 penal institutions to determine how overtime and sick leave can be reduced.
One of the largest factors in the overtime budget is the escorting of prisoners to court. A Department spokesman said that the opening of Cloverhill remand prison in Dublin next year, with its own courthouse, would cut these costs.
