THE RULING by the Civil Service Arbitration Board undoubtedly represents a victory for the trade unions representing staff in the Civil Service.
As a result of the finding all Civil Service personnel will have to be given an additional two days’ annual leave to compensate them for the abolition of the traditional privilege days which they received at Christmas and Easter.
However, the ruling could represent a short-term victory. The board’s decision was based largely on procedural issues and it made clear it was not setting a floor on leave arrangements.
The Government immediately followed up this point with Minister for Public Service Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin signalling that it would now pursue the issue of leave and privilege days across the public service.
The board’s finding is in effect a wake-up call to the Government that if it is serious about one of the main aims of its reform programme – the breaking down of barriers between the different parts of the public services – then it will have to tackle, centrally, distortions in relation to conditions and working arrangements.
More than five years ago, the investigations into the Ppars computer system highlighted the massive “variances” in staff conditions in various locations in the health service.
Similar arrangements exist in local authorities around the country.
Staff in some areas get time off to cash pay cheques – a highly controversial practice that ended in the Civil Service last December.
In some 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.
Last 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 ended up in the Labour Court, which recommended that it should be addressed in the context of the Croke Park agreement.
Some time earlier, Leitrim County Council moved to end a traditional half-day’s leave in recognition of a local regatta on the Shannon. Staff objected and eventually received compensation by way of a “one-off allocation of two days’ additional annual leave in 2009 and one day’s additional leave in 2010”.
However, it was reported last year that staff in other local authorities in Waterford, Galway and Kerry 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 included the Galway races and the Tralee races.
Management in the Department of the Environment flagged last year that it wanted to see reforms in this area, under the terms of the Croke Park deal.
This was in keeping with the view of the Department of Finance – which has been responsible overall for public service reform – that such distortions in relation to leave and time off should be addressed on a sectoral basis.
In the light of the arbitration board’s finding, this strategy no longer holds, and the “broad brush” approach will be adopted.
In essence, if the Government wants a single public service model through which staff can move seamlessly and without barriers and anomalies, then there is going to have to be a standardised arrangement for leave and time off.
The Government will want to secure such an arrangement under the framework of the Croke Park deal.
However, as the agreement comes up to its first birthday, the comments by Howlin yesterday about his “disappointment” at the approach adopted by the unions to the privilege days issue will undoubtedly provide greater ammunition to critics of the agreement.
As much as Croke Park required the co-operation of staff and unions in the public service, it also needs the public’s trust.
With a series of reviews on progress made and savings generated so far scheduled in the weeks and months ahead, the pressure on the deal to deliver tangible results is all the greater.
