Jail chiefs are proposing to move 'clocking-in' facilities to the far side of prison entrances so that officers will have to go through the security search before they officially start work.

John Clinton, head of the 3,000-strong Prison Officers' Association (POA), has told the Sunday Tribune that while the POA agreed with, and welcomed, the introduction of security searches, it was unfair for prison officers to be expected to be searched "in their own time."

He denied that this was a petty dispute and said officers were extremely angry at the "unilateral decision" by prison service management to change the clocking-in arrangements without consulting them.

"Prison officers usually arrive at the same time for work so inevitably you will end up in a queue. Prison management told the association that the searches will take just four seconds but on an arranged visit to Strangeways prison in the UK, where security searches are already in place, they took up to two minutes. This means that officers here will have to arrive 10 to 15 minutes early for work without being paid, " said Clinton.

Prison officers are currently being balloted on industrial action over the issue, with a result expected after 20 November. "We are available for talks, " said Clinton.

The new security search procedures were proposed by former Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, who told the POA at its conference last spring that it was unacceptable that there were greater security measures checking people getting onto a plane than entering a prison.

The new search measures are similar to the procedures at airports, with officers and visitors having to put all bags, coats, shoes etc through an xray machine after which the individual will be frisked.

The new security procedures are being put into all prisons and should be completed by the end of the year.

Portlaoise is the only prison in the country which already has security searches. This followed the discovery in the mid-1980s that explosives used to blow in a door as part of an escape attempt had been smuggled in by visitors to the maximum security prison.