RACING NEWS:IRISH RACING faces the prospect of strike action by Turf Club officials later this month if agreement can't be reached between the sport's regulatory body and its racecourse personnel over cutbacks.
A ballot of the Turf Club Officials Association yesterday resulted in an 87 per cent vote to allow for strike action which could bring racing in Ireland grinding to a halt just a few weeks before the Cheltenham Festival.
The 32-member TCOA, which includes officials who carry out stewarding duties and is part of the Mandate Union, took their vote after two days of negotiations with the Turf Club at the Labour Relations Commission.
The vote for industrial action appeared to take the Turf Club by surprise yesterday but a TCOA spokesman said this is the latest development in a two-year dispute over changes to their terms of employment and cutbacks to the integrity services. “The Turf Club might say that these matters have been addressed but there is a big difference between addressing something and coming to a resolution,” the TCOA chairman, Michael O’Donoghue, said yesterday evening.
“There is also a big difference between negotiating and pursuing a different agenda. We have no problem with cutbacks but we do when they want to change conditions of employment and reduce all staff to part-timers. A lot of us are born into this game and are unwilling to go down this road. But this is the last straw,” he added.
The Turf Club chief executive, Denis Egan, said the regulatory body had to make cutbacks on the back of reduced funding from Horse Racing Ireland. It is due to receive €6.4 million for 2010, compared to €7.9 million in 2008.
“Seventy seven per cent of our costs are staff related so there is no alternative to cutting there,” he said last night. “Our situation is the same as any employer. We have to cut costs to survive. I’m very surprised they have voted for industrial action. On Thursday night we gave them what they wanted on two issues – an issue with rostering, and extending an end to negotiations by two weeks.”
Egan stressed he was open to further negotiations to try and solve the dispute which could soon see racing being affected. A week has to be given for official notification of the vote to be given to the Turf Club but yesterday’s move means strike action is a possibility after that.
Up to 10 officials are normally required to be on duty at any one race meeting but yesterday’s vote, which was taken by full-time officials, and part-timers, could leave the Turf Club relying on casuals to police fixtures.
In July of last year, there were farcical scenes at Bellewstown when a race began before the well-backed favourite even made it to the start. Some full-time officials didn’t work at that meeting due to a continuing dispute over extra pay for working Saturday evenings and the controversial race was started by a casual employee in his first meeting as a starter.
“We are also hugely concerned about what is happening to the integrity services in general,” Michael O’Donoghue added yesterday. “Cutbacks are affecting what is happening in a lot of areas, like sample analysis and checking microchips to identify horses when they go racing. We have been arguing this for two years. It isn’t something that has just popped up,” he added.
There was a 75 per cent turn-out for yesterday’s TCOA meeting. The union were reportedly in talks with the Turf Club on Tuesday and Thursday for up to 16 hours.
