THE UNION representing lower-paid civil servants has told the Government there is no question of these workers losing traditional privilege days off and claims that higher-grade workers have refused to give them up under the Croke Park agreement.
In correspondence to the union’s branch secretaries, general secretary of the CPSU Blair Horan said that the union had made it “crystal clear” to the Department of Finance that there could be no question of lower-grade workers losing privilege days when others had 31 days’ leave. “Yesterday we asked them if secretary generals and assistant secretary generals had volunteered to give up their privilege days. No was the answer,” he said.
The memo also referred to so-called “bank time”, a fortnightly half-hour time off, which the department has indicated will be cut, something Mr Horan suggested was disproportionate to lower-grade staff. “We will not accept CPSU grades being put first in the queue for change, with managers let off the hook.”