STAFF AT the Passport Office in Dublin could have pay docked in the event of further industrial action along the lines of that which took place last Friday.
The Government is today expected to signal its strong concern to staff at the Passport Office over the closure of the public office on Friday afternoon as part of the campaign of industrial action across the public service over pay cuts.
Fine Gael’s foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins last night called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to look at the feasibility of outsourcing the issuing of passports in the event of continuing disruption.
Mr Timmins said it is “no longer tolerable that people can’t travel due to the industrial action”.
Long queues formed at the Passport Office in Molesworth Street on Friday as people sought to obtain passports before the lunchtime closure. At one stage in the afternoon a group of people who had not got passports staged a sit-in at the office.
Government sources over the weekend described the events at the office on Friday as “unacceptable”.
Last night a spokesman for the Department of Finance said the Government “was concerned at what happened at the Passport Office on Friday”. The issue would be raised with staff today.
Informed sources said last night that if similar action took place in the future the Government could consider docking pay from the staff involved.
Sources said this was more likely than suspending members of staff, a move which could trigger a full-scale strike.
Members of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) have been staging public office closures and bans on answering phones across the Civil Service on a rolling basis for nearly two months now as part of the campaign of industrial action against pay cuts introduced by the Government in the budget.
To date the Government has adopted a non-confrontational approach to the industrial action. The Department of Finance had instructed other Government bodies not to take action against those involved in the industrial action without informing it first.
Public sector unions have continued with a low–level campaign of industrial action, including the public office closures and phone bans, in parallel with new talks with Government officials on pay determination and reform measures which have been under way for the past week.
A phone ban will be put in place by the CPSU across the Civil Service this afternoon.
The CPSU on Friday blamed management at the Department of Foreign Affairs for what it described as the “debacle” at the Passport Office.
The CPSU said the Department of Foreign Affairs had issued a public statement saying that the office would be closed on Friday afternoon without stating that it would reopen on Monday.
The union said this caused many people to panic and to believe that the office would be closed indefinitely.
The union said this led to some people turning up at the office looking for passports which were not ready for collection.