The Civil Public and Services Union, which represents lower paid civil servants, has claimed that top grades in the civil service have refused to give up privilege days as part of the implementation of the Croke Park agreement.
In a memo to CPSU branch secretaries, General Secretary Blair Horan says that it has been made crystal clear to the Department of Finance that there can be no question of taking privilege days from his members, given their low level of leave.
However he said that higher grades, who have annual leave entitlements of up to 31 days, were in a different position.
The union has told the Department it would be unfair to eliminate ‘bank time’ for cashing cheques as it would hit lower paid staff disproportionately.
He said that the CPSU had asked management at a meeting this week if Secretary Generals and Assistant Secretaries General had volunteered to give up their privilege days, and that the answer had been no.
He accused the Department of Finance of dumping on the lower paid yet again in implementing the Croke Park agreement.
The memo states that the CPSU approach to the Action Plans would be to insist that equity and fairness are put centre stage.
Mr Horan said that there is also no proposal in the Croke Park action plan for the civil service to address what he called the extraordinary growth of management grades in the civil service over the last decade.
He said they would not accept CPSU grades being put first in the queue for change, while managers are let off the hook.
He also reminded branch secretaries that it was not open to management to implement the changes unilaterally.
The CPSU General Secretary points to the disproportionate increase in higher management grades in the civil service.
Between 1998 and 2009 there was a 60% increase in the number of Assistant Secretaries General.
There was a 462% increase in the number of Higher Principal Officers, with a 43% increase in the number of Principal Officers.
The number of Higher Assistant Principals soared by 339%, the number of Assistant Principals rose by 61%, and the number of Higher Executive officers by 72%.
Executive officers rose by just over 100%.
However, at the lower end of the pay scales, staff officer numbers were up by just 22%, and the ranks of clerical officers only increased by 14%.
