On budget day, the Minister for Finance announced that civil servants earning between €165,000 and €200,000 would take pay cuts of 12% while those earning over €200,000 would take pay cuts of 15%. Yesterday (24th Dec), with the public focusing on their pre-Christmas preparations, the government announced that this would not be happening after all.
These pay cuts have been rolled back for two reasons. First, the government announced that it was going to take into account the elimination of “performance-related awards” which had averaged ten percent of their salary. As a result it reduced the new pay cuts for some civil service grades to reflect the loss of this ten percent .........
First, these performance-related awards were, as their name suggests, not guaranteed but (at least in theory) related to performance. This move appears to be an effective admission from the government that these payments were not in fact performance-related bonuses but part of the core pay of these civil servants. For a government that claims to be keen to introduce reform into the civil service (something that should include bonuses as incentives for good performance) this is a very unfortunate precedent.
The "performance-related awards" system was set up for assistant secretaries and deputy secretaries in 2002. The 2007 bonus awards for this group cost about €2.7m -- an average of around €17,763 each.
To qualify, the senior civil servants had to set their own targets in "three key areas". They then had to assess their own performance in a report at the end of the year. This was sent on to the head of their government department and a group known as the [broken link removed]. In 2008, more than 91pc of these civil servants got bonuses ranging from 5pc to 15pc -- with the remainder getting less than 5pc.
Excellent news.
Shows that this Government is for turning.
This surely must be grist to the union's mill , hopefully co-ordinated industrial action will now further influence Government thinking.
Excellent news.
Shows that this Government is for turning.
This surely must be grist to the union's mill , hopefully co-ordinated industrial action will now further influence Government thinking.
The lower grades should be frothing at the mouth at this slap in the face.
I'm in no doubt as to who runs the country.I don't think you really get who runs this country, and for whose benefit it's so run. You've been shafted.
I think you're deluding yourself DB. This isn't the thin edge of any wedge. This is about pensionable salaries. This is about those in senior CS positions pulling up the drawbridge.I'm in no doubt as to who runs the country.
The most incompetent shower of wasters I've ever had the misfortune to have as the Government of my country !
As to whose benefit it's run for ? - could I propose a coterie of Bankers and developers ?
Your " you've been shafted " comment needs some explanation unless you're referring to what the majority of the country has experienced under this Government !
. This is about those in senior CS positions pulling up the drawbridge.
Have to disagree.I think you're deluding yourself DB. This isn't the thin edge of any wedge. This is about pensionable salaries. This is about those in senior CS positions pulling up the drawbridge.
I agree. I think this is going to add fuel to the fire of angry civil servants down the ranks and has made industrial action much more likely now. I presume the logic that senior civil servants will use is that 10% of their salary was 'held back' every year until they proved they had reached certain targets but I don't think this will wash.
Now 600 escape full brunt of public sector pay cuts.Do we have any idea how many public servants are on such "performance related bonuses"?
Who'd a thunk it, that bonuses were so common in the public sector.A special arrangement exempting 150 top civil servants from full pay cuts will also apply to a further 450 senior managers across a string of state bodies, the Irish Independent can reveal.
As ordinary gardai, HSE and local authority workers see their pay slashed, some of their bosses have been told they can keep more of their much larger salaries.
Who'd a thunk it, that bonuses were so common in the public sector.
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