MANAGEMENT IN local authorities around the State are to target time off given to staff to cash cheques, extra privilege days provided in addition to annual leave, and “out-dated” allowances as part of the reforms to be implemented under the Croke Park agreement.
A Department of the Environment spokesman said it had now agreed its plan on reform with the deal’s implementation body.
Under the plan for local authorities, standardised annual leave arrangements will be introduced, as will a standardised annual working week of 35 hours.
Initiatives to modernise out-dated work practices, allowances and payments will also be introduced.
The plan sets a deadline for April and December next year for implementation.
The spokesman for the Department of the Environment said local authorities would now move to implement these measures in their areas.
Informed sources said that over the years a whole host of local arrangements had developed in a number of areas.
Staff in some areas get time off to cash pay cheques.
In other regions staff work a 33-hour week, as opposed to a 35-hour week elsewhere.
In other areas staff receive time off to attend local festivals or events.
Sources said these issues would be looked at on a case-by-case basis in local authorities around the State.
Some management sources said the reforms were already under way in some parts of the State in relation to the issue of additional time off awarded to staff on top of annual leave.
Staff in Leitrim County Council, for example, no longer get a traditional half-day’s leave in recognition of a local regatta on the shannon..
The local authority decided to seek to end the practice in the light of the deteriorating economic situation and because the original festival no longer took place. Staff brought the issue to the Labour Court, which ruled last year that they should receive compensation by way of a “one-off allocation of two days’ additional annual leave in 2009 and one day’s additional leave in 2010”.
Earlier this year Kildare County Council sought to remove two privilege days traditionally given to staff on top of annual leave to attend the horse racing festival at Punchestown.
This issue also ended up in the Labour Court, which recommended that it should be addressed in the context of the Croke Park agreement.
It was reported last year that staff in other local authorities in Waterford, Galway and Kerry also received additional time off to attend local festivals or events, although offices remained open during these periods.
Festivals for which workers received extra time off for included the Galway races and the Tralee races.
Last month the Department of Finance, in an overall reform plan for the Civil Service under the Croke Park deal, said it wanted by the end of this month to end the 30-minute banking time traditionally allowed to staff to cash cheques.
All staff appointed before 2003 receive this “banking time” facility, although the vast bulk of personnel are paid by electronic transfer straight into their bank accounts.
The Department of Finance document also said that a new circular on opening times at holiday periods would be produced by February.
This has generally been taken as a strong hint that it plans to change the traditional additional privilege day off given to staff at Christmas and Easter.
However, the plan to end banking time is being resisted by the trade union representing lower-paid civil servants, the Civil, Public and Services Union .
Further talks between the various trade unions and the Department of Finance are expected to take place shortly on the reform plans.
