CIVIL SERVANTS hoping to regain a free half-hour – a perk that used to exist for them to bank their pay cheques – were told by their own union yesterday their plans were “idiocy” and “nonsense”.
An effort was made yesterday at the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) annual conference in Galway to have an old agreement reinstated.
The “banking half-hour” system allowed workers to lodge their pay cheques before electronic wage transfer was introduced.
It was abolished for new entrants to the public service in 2003 and ended for others last year under the Croke Park agreement. A motion before the PSEU conference called for the restoration of the perk, but it was opposed by union leaders.
Deputy general secretary Billy Hannigan shot down the motion, saying they would be laughed at if workers looked for time off to bank cheques they didn’t even get.
“This is total and utter nonsense – idiocy of the highest order. We complain about the media not taking us seriously – how could they when we don’t take ourselves seriously if we pass this motion.
“We should take this motion and frog-march it out the door,” he said.
Earlier the Legal Aid Board branch had proposed that while the banking half-hour had ended, it sought to instruct the incoming union executive to seek the restoration of the arrangement whereby it was possible for staff to clock in or for up to half an hour during the day on Thursdays or Fridays without incurring an infringement.
Branch delegate Gerry Enright said that some members had got into the practice over the years of leaving a little early and had asked if that half-hour flexibility could be restored.
Mr Enright said that Mr Hannigan’s comments were “rude and insulting”, although he was sure this was not intended. “We are not looking for banking time as such, we are looking for the arrangement to leave work earlier,” he said.
Clare Connolly, a delegate from the Department of Education and Skills, said she had never benefited from the banking half-hour and that if it was restored for some it would only cause difficulty.
The motion was defeated by a margin of about two-to-one, although a number of branches supported it. The PSEU represents mid-ranking public sector workers, mainly employed in Government departments.