term time question

A friend of my husband working in Revenue is on term time in a few days. 3 months off (according to her - i don't know what it entails). It had me wondering what happens to the service if even half of those with children avail of this family friendly policy knock off for the summer months - is the revenue on a "go slow"? or is overtime jacked up or are the poor unfortunates left behind worked ragged to keep the same level of service up? Its not a jealousy thing before anyone accuses me of it nor an "attack" on anyone fortunate to have this perk.

pennypitstop said:

A friend of my husband working in Revenue is on term time in a few days. 3 months off (according to her - i don't know what it entails). It had me wondering what happens to the service if even half of those with children avail of this family friendly policy knock off for the summer months - is the revenue on a "go slow"? or is overtime jacked up or are the poor unfortunates left behind worked ragged to keep the same level of service up? Its not a jealousy thing before anyone accuses me of it nor an "attack" on anyone fortunate to have this perk.

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Up until last year at least, term-timers were replaced for the summer. I don't know if that is the situation this year with the pressure on public spending.

From memory, there was an ad on publicjobs.ie a couple of years ago for temporary jobs to cover clerical officer's term time and I think the number they were looking for was approx 500. This would give you an indication of how many people at this grade avail of term time.

People who avail of term time are paid while on leave but their wages are adjusted over a 52 week period to take this into account.

In the past summer staff were employed by various departments to fill the gaps but last year only a small number of staff were recruited and this year it will be even less. Public Jobs or The Public Appointments Service to give it its full name would have advertised these posts over the last few months.

There isnt any go slow as some people put it, but if staff numbers are down, the workload will have to be covered by less staff which can lead to backlogs.

I would assume that the option to take parental leave is constrained by the Department's requirements, i.e. the possibility the Department being left short-handed should not arise.

I would imagine that term time is being encouraged by the Government - saves 25% of the paybill for every staff member who takes it (assuming no replacement).

Managment here got a memo last year asking them to use it as a cost saving measure.

There is no such thing as 'term time' any more. It has been replaced by a shorter working year option ie staff, regardless of whether they have school going children, can opt to take from 2 weeks to several months (not sure how many, probably 3) unpaid leave a year, as long as it is sanctioned by their manager. A manager should presumably only sanction it if the business needs of the area won't be affected eg some areas may not be as busy during certain times of the year as others. 'Term time' used to be fairly easy to get as staff would be replaced during their absence. I suspect unpaid leave will now be much harder to get as many areas are already seriously short staffed due to the embargo on recruitment and the fact that those taking early retirement cannot be replaced.