THE GOVERNMENT will not put money on the table to buy out existing leave arrangements for staff in the public service, Minister for Public Service Reform Brendan Howlin has said.
The Minister confirmed yesterday the Government had opened negotiations in recent days with trade unions on plans for new standardised leave arrangements to apply across the public service.
Mr Howlin said what was likely to emerge from the process was a twin-track position with new maximum and minimum leave entitlements for existing personnel and a revised lower arrangement for new entrants.
The Minister said he wanted the public service to have leave entitlements analogous with the private sector, but acknowledged this could not be achieved instantly.
However, he said the Government could set down those norms for new entrants. He said leave arrangements had “grown like Topsy” in the public service over recent years. He said in local authorities, days off for fairs and traditional events had been incorporated into mainstream leave.
Mr Howlin declined to provide details on the numbers of days off envisaged by the Government for public service under planned reforms. He indicated it would set out its plans after completion of the review of the implementation of the Croke Park agreement.
Addressing delegates at a joint session of the trade union Impact’s health and welfare and Civil Service divisional conferences in Tralee, the Minister said the Government’s reform programme meant “addressing traditional but over-generous entitlements and working arrangements”.
He said that it could be hard to defend some of the existing practices. “That is why I have asked my department to look at standardising those arrangements at a level closer to those normal in other employments, and I expect that new arrangements will be agreed shortly for all public servants working in similar roles.”
The Minister told delegates he expected the review of the Croke Park deal would show savings were being made in the State’s pay bill and services were continuing to be delivered while staff numbers fell.