Garda Sergeant can't afford food

Stheno wrote: »

The minimum holiday here for a full time employee is 20 days

So they get 5 extra days, and 9 more to compensate them for potentially having to work those days?

If they worked bank holidays on a time in lieu basis that might be more economical for the country.

And going by another post they work six days out of ten.
Most people work five days out of seven excluding the nine weeks of the year there is a bank holiday

So on that basis six days out of ten is 219 working days, whereas most people would work 242 days a year and not get an additional 5 days holidays along with the statutory and what appears to be another 23 days off a year.

Ok, the leave for a "normal" person is 4 weeks (by which i take it for granted that's 4 5 day weeks) so 20 days. Add 9 for public holidays and you have 29. The other 5 can be accounted for in a number of ways, most probably is the nature of the work involved. Anyway, as i said already there is a very good possibility that this will be reduced to 29 next April (leaving it at 34 was a "good will" gesture to aid in the change from 8 hour days to 10 hours days).

The average person works 8 hours a day, so going by your figures, the average person works 1936 hours in a year (242*8). A Garda works 2190 hours in a year (219*10). That's 254 more hours, or, 25.4 more days. Take away the 14 (9+5) and a Garda works 11.4 more days than the average person.

Japer wrote: »

go away out of that. I remember in 1982 many people starting work for 5,000 a year. You are telling me Guards starting work then, with a middlin to poor leaving cert, thought they could retire at age 49 with an average pension pot of 1.1 MILLION ? Some houses were 25,000 back then - you think Gardai thought they could retire with a pension pot able to buy dozens of houses?
In many parts of the country a retiring Guard could still buy a number of properties with his tax free retirement gratuity on retirement age 49 or 50, courtesy of the taxpayer. No wonder the country is bust.

Those same houses cost up to 200k before the recession. What's your point? Just because the figure wasn't 1.1m, i'm sure the figure back then would have been substantial at the time, but still not 1.1m by todays standards.

They say the average Garda has a retirement pot of 1.1m, but that's if you include all those above the rank of Garda; Chief Super's are on crazy wages, about twice that of the Sergeant in this thread, i'm sure they have a big impact on the "average" pension of a Garda. As i already explained in a previous post, the most a standard frontline Garda who doesn't get promoted (there's thousands of them) would get max between 750k and 800k.

Here's a link to the number of members in different ranks (Under 7.9). 2010 being the most recent, but of 14,377, 11,679 are of Garda rank. The rest would possibly get a pension pot worth 1.1m, but those 11,679 wouldn't.

They also pay their own wages. And, most people don't have to do the tough, hard and mentally stressful job that they do. €25k a year after you retire is not a lot for someone who has spent 30 years doing one of the hardest jobs in the country. Hatred, bitterness, spitefulness, or disliking aside, it is one of the hardest jobs in the country, and also one which requires a varying range of skills which are not needed in most "normal" jobs.

There is also plenty stopping Gardai moving up in the ranks. Stiff competition (going by the figures in the link i gave above, <20% get promoted to Sergeant, and it dramatically decreases from there on), other Gardai knowing someone that gives them the upper hand regardless of ability. There is a lot of lateral promotion, ie: to detective duties. This doesn't carry a pay increase, but an allowance, they still earn the same as the plain ole Garda.

Stheno wrote: »

I agree it's a hateful job and requires a lot of skills.

25k is the lower end of the pension though no?

And back on topic, how is this seargeant on 51k struggling?

25-26k is the most a member of Garda rank can receive. You've to be promoted to Sergeant or higher to get more.

He is possibly struggling due to bad money management and/or more debt than earnings. It's 65K for a family of at least 4. And there are a lot of agreement with his situation, but way way way more people giving out that they can do it better/live like kings on that wage.

Emeraldy Pebbles wrote: »

Hmmm, and why do you think that is?

because he earn twice what most of us do?

Japer wrote: »

which bit do you think is incorrect, or do you just not like the truth being told?

You keep saying it's worth 1.1 million, but i have proven that to members of Garda rank that it's not 1.1 million. The yearly pension for a retired member of Garda rank is 25k. Maybe 26k. Go back through my posts and you'll find that proof.

And maybe the job wasn't as hard back then as it is now, but i can guarantee you that simply passing your leaving cert is no longer adequate to join (i believe you need a number of courses completed to even be considered at this stage). But, is this why you didn't join? Was the job below you? Were you too intelligent to be a simple Garda? Or was it just not for you?

Also, do you not think that larger than normal wages and a good pension packet is required to get people to apply? No one would want to do the job of a Garda for minimum wage with a crap pension. Or maybe people would, but i can guarantee that if you're giving out about the service of Gardai now, i would love to see what you'd be saying if it was a minimum wage job. "How did your house get broken into?" "I left the back door unlocked" "You stupid c*nt, go f*ck yourself now for be so stupid".

And finally, 30 years of potentially putting your life on the line every day at work, being hated simply because you're a Garda, and possibly being targeted just for being a Garda or for "locking someone up" is long enough in my book. It's 20 years in the US.