The public service was "sinking into an acceptance of mediocrity" with increasing costs and static productivity rates, a senior bank official claimed yesterday.
Irish Life & Permanent's group head of human resources and organisation development, Mr Niall Saul, also warned that the influence of EU regulations in the labour market was "building rigidity when the need is for flexibility and agility".
Mr Saul said people were prepared to pay for a "value service" from public bodies. But he warned that increasing costs "without delivery or real value and productivity" were a "blockage" to competitiveness.
"The public service is sinking into an acceptance of mediocrity. This is coming through in its lack of success in recruiting people into it," he told the annual conference of the Institute of Personnel and Development in Ireland.
In a wide-ranging presentation on the implications of "competition and change" for human resources managers, Mr Saul said EU employment regulations were making its member-states uncompetitive in the global labour market.
Criticising measures under which trade "unions were nominated as a partner by right rather than employees", Mr Saul said: "There's no doubt about it that it's forcing the cost of business up to a level disguised by the value of the euro."
He warned that a rise in the value of the single currency could push the euro-zone into recession. This would have serious implications for Irish home-owners, he said.
Claiming that social partnership could be used as a "flag of convenience" by the trade union movement, Mr Saul said he feared the creation of an "illusion of partnership" between trade unions and employers. This meant trade unions could argue for wage increases which companies could not afford.
Mr Saul added that the lack of "a court of last resort" in industrial-relations disputes, which would be binding on all parties, was a further barrier to competitiveness.
The key task for human resources managers was to secure the "engagement" of workers rather than a "compliant" workforce, he argued. Given the shortage of labour, employees would have to be seen as a "customers" of their organisations. This would require greater opportunities for career development and flexibility in employment arrangements, Mr Saul said.
