TRAINEE gardai are facing the sack after blasting top brass over a two-tier pay structure.

A group of young officers have written a scathing letter to management demanding equal pay with colleagues earning nearly €8,000 more.

The junior gardai met in Dublin in the last week and drew up the document explaining their concerns.

The letter, seen by the Irish Sun, was from a group identifying themselves as ‘14-1’. They were among the first to be trained in the Garda College in 2014 since the moratorium on recruitment was lifted.

They have also written to the Garda Representative Association and asked them for help.

The lengthy letter blasts: “The future of the force is in peril and we need urgent action.”

The new recruits earn €23,171 before tax, whereas the previous group who graduated in 2009 were paid approximately €31,000.

The letter states: “There is a genuine feeling amongst our numbers that there is simply no support for us, we feel there is a distinct lack of leadership and concern when it comes to addressing the unjust two-tier pay system that we are subjected to.”

Sources have said they fear the young officers will face sanctions and even the sack for standing up to management, given they are still on probation.

The letter goes on to say morale among young gardai is low. It reads: “Such is the financial pressures on new entrants we are now experiencing a depression among the group. Already families are feeling the pinch.

“Having absorbed the financial impact of eight months on a meagre training wage we are now seeing families staring at a bleak outlook on such a lowly working wage.

“Members of the 14-1 intake are already seeking alternative employment in order to save their families.

“The issue is urgent and must change for the sake of the organisation, and in the name of equality. The two-tier pay system must change . . . now.”

The group declared: “Working as a garda is a vocation and the role is a cornerstone of Irish society. We are proud to be gardai.

“However, working long nights and weekends as well as commuting long distances from home, coupled with the dangers of modern policing, we feel we should be rewarded fairly and not meagerly. The Minister for Finance has recently claimed the ‘era of austerity’ is over. Austerity needs to end for Garda members also. The future of the force is in peril and we need urgent action.” The letter and meeting have echoes of the infamous Macushla Revolt of 1961 in which gardai organised the GRA to represent them.

The organising committee were sacked by brass but were reinstated after an intervention by the Church.

Meanwhile the Garda Representative Association told the Irish Sun that they have been fighting the corner of the new recruits.

GRA president Dermot O’Brien said it is “inherently wrong” that two colleagues are paid differently.

He added: “It’s wrong that new recruits should be treated differently. It’s wrong for the country to expect them to put their lives on the line daily for unequal pay.

“Much of the equality legislation has eradicated unjust behaviour in the private sector — but for the Minister for Justice and Equality to sanction unequal rates of pay for her own employees undermines her job title.”

The Department of Justice and An Garda Siochana have not provided a statement. @IrishSunOnline