ANALYSIS:The next few weeks will be crucial for the implementation of the Croke Park agreement, writes MARTIN WALL
THE DEPARTMENT of Finance has published a circular on its website setting out how new provisions to redeploy staff across the Civil Service under the Government’s overall public service transformation programme will apply.
The plan allows for surplus staff to be identified in various Government departments and for them to be moved, initially on a voluntary basis but compulsorily if necessary, to areas of greater priority.
The document effectively restates a number of principles regarding redeployment that have been under discussion for many months. However, it also marks the latest step on the long road towards the implementation of the Croke Park agreement on public service pay and reform.
Redeployment of staff to new roles, new locations and even new organisations, along with more flexible working and the adoption of new work practices and technologies, are some of the main features of the Croke Park deal. The agreement aims to transform public services and at the same time unlock the potential for staff to recoup some of the pay cuts introduced over the last year or so.
Redeployment of personnel is considered essential to maintain services at a time when the Government is planning to reduce the number of staff on its payroll dramatically, possibly by up to 20,000 over the coming years.
The Croke Park deal, which was negotiated between the Government and public service unions last March, was formally ratified by the public service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions early in the summer. Over recent weeks management has been requested by Government to finalise proposals for transformation in their own areas.
The key implementation body for the agreement was established in early July with the former head of the Courts Service and senior health board official, PJ Fitzpatrick, appointed as its chair.
The implementation body is scheduled to meet the general secretaries of the main public service unions in early September in what is likely to mark another key date in the move towards putting the deal into place on the ground.
For although the deal has been discussed at enormous length over recent months, a number of key elements remain to be determined fully.
Firstly, the text of the agreement contains many high-level principles about reform. However, it remains to be seen what the reaction of staff in individual workplaces will be to management change proposals that affect them directly.
Already over the summer there have been a number of bushfire disputes over issues that arguably are covered by the Croke Park deal.
The recent waste collection row in Dún Laoghaire stemmed from proposals by management regarding outsourcing of services.
The dispute over proposals by HSE management in the west to let go up to 1,000 temporary staff is centred, to a significant degree, on whether this would breach the guarantees given at Croke Park that there will be no compulsory redundancies.
Separately, the current dispute involving electricians at St James’s Hospital in Dublin is about staff wanting to hold on to traditional roles.
When full management proposals for reform are tabled, probably next month, another key issue will be the attitude of unions whose members voted to reject the Croke Park agreement.
The deal was ratified by Ictu on the basis of an aggregate vote of its public service unions. However, individual unions such as the CPSU, representing lower-paid civil servants, and the teaching unions TUI and IFUT, voted against it. Whether members of these unions will be prepared to implement reforms sought by management and the reaction of the Government to any such refusal remains to be seen.
Another crucial issue for the success or otherwise of the deal is that the timescale for the generation of savings under the reform process is very short if any money is to be returned to staff next year.
Separately, the Government has never made clear whether all the savings generated under the reforms will be given back to staff or whether it will be just a proportion.
The first pay review under the deal is scheduled for next spring.
Last month the Minister of State with responsibility for public service reform Dara Calleary told The Irish Times that the level of money to be reimbursed to staff would be based on savings generated up to that time.
If the generation of savings is impeded as a result of delays on the part of management in putting forward reform plans, or if the implementation is held up by staff, then the scope for restoring pay levels will be limited further.
Separately, the new implementation body and the Government will have to decide on the mechanism for reimbursing money to staff. A key question will be whether, for example, the available money will be divided out evenly.
Such a move could prove controversial if some groups claim that they are carrying more of the burden of reform than others.
Under the Government’s overall transformation plan, the scale of reform sought from staff is unlikely to be uniform. Some personnel, particularly in health, will see their core working day – where no overtime or allowances will apply – expanded. Others will be asked to redeploy or adopt new work practices.
Martin Wall is industry correspondent of The Irish Times