Health Service Career

[Shane99]

Hi,

I am thinking of going for a job in the Health Service (not a medical job) and I have a few questions about the setup.

1. If I join the Health Service am I in the Civil Service? The reason I am interested is because I have seen other jobs advertised requiring that the candidate should "on the date they apply for the competition, be serving in an established, unestablished or acting capacity in the civil service". The job in the Health Service is a good one but also hopefully opens up doors in the Civil Service. If an employee of the Health Service is not a Civil Servant then I may be wasting my time.
2. The job has a a grade and then say 5 salary increments within that grade. Does it ever happen that a new arrival will go in at anything other than the lowest salary increment. If the candidate is good, could they for example go in at salary increment 4?
3. I know public sector workers get good pension benefits. Are these pension benefits contributory or non-contributory? Do public sector workers pay say 5% or 10% of their salaries towards their pensions or is it all included in the package?

Sorry if I asked a few questions there but any answers to any bits of the questions would help me in making a big decision.

Shane.

 

[RainyDay]

[*]If I join the Health Service am I in the Civil Service? The reason I am interested is because I have seen other jobs advertised requiring that the candidate should "on the date they apply for the competition, be serving in an established, unestablished or acting capacity in the civil service". The job in the Health Service is a good one but also hopefully opens up doors in the Civil Service. If an employee of the Health Service is not a Civil Servant then I may be wasting my time.

HSE employees are public servants, but not civil servants.

[*]The job has a a grade and then say 5 salary increments within that grade. Does it ever happen that a new arrival will go in at anything other than the lowest salary increment. If the candidate is good, could they for example go in at salary increment 4?

I'm not an expert on this, but I understand that most Govt departments have clamped down on new staff starting at anything other than bottom of scale. I did hear that the health service were more generous than most Govt departments in the past, but I'm not sure if this is still the case.

[*]I know public sector workers get good pension benefits. Are these pension benefits contributory or non-contributory? Do public sector workers pay say 5% or 10% of their salaries towards their pensions or is it all included in the package?

Yes - pensions are contributory. Check out the Public Sector pensions forum for more details.

 

[Shane99]

Thanks RainyDay. Pretty comprehensive answer.