Hi Inver,
Extract from Q&A section of IMPACT Trade Union's website re Re-deployment but Full text of Croke Park Agreement widely available on net if you search on google.
Hope this is useful.
Could I be redeployed over long distances against my will?
Public service employers are already able to redeploy staff within their organisations – even if that means long distances. But they seldom do. Although most people would continue to remain in their present location, these proposals envisage more redeployment in order to prevent compulsory redundancies when organisations are closed or merged, and fill essential posts made vacant by the moratorium, or where functions are de-prioritised because of budget restrictions. It would also help maximise savings from staff reductions, which will ultimately contribute towards the restoration of the pay cuts.
The clarifications that IMPACT sought and received from the Labour Relations Commission confirm that redeployment will be operated “in a reasonable manner and with due regard for the personal circumstances of public servants. There will not be serial or multiple redeployments and the work location from which the first location is proposed/home address of staff will be used to determine the radius for any redeployment.”
Under the redeployment proposals, your employer would first have to give a good reason for redeployment. This might be reconfiguration of services, redirection of skills and competences, or the need to meet staffing requirements in the context of the recruitment moratorium. A full list is set out in the proposed agreement.
If redeployment is warranted, your employer would have to seek volunteers in the first instance. If there were no volunteers, selection for redeployment would be based on length of service (ie, those with most seniority would be the last to be redeployed). You could not be relocated more than 45km from your current workplace or home (whichever is the shorter) and employers would also have to have regard to reasonable daily commute times. And you could appeal if you were unhappy with a redeployment decision and an independent adjudicator – who would have to be agreed by the union - would have to issue a decision within 21 days. The arrangements are slightly different between sectors – you can get details in our summaries of the sectoral change proposals.
If you were redeployed your pay and conditions would be protected. You might not be redeployed to exactly the same work, but the proposals include safeguards to ensure the new role is suitable to you. The following criteria would be used in any redeployment: the nature of the work; qualifications; skills and experience required; capability to undertake the work; working arrangements; and level of responsibility. Retraining could be made available.