The Civil Public and Services Union has passed a motion calling for staff to be allowed finish work once a week at 3.30pm in light of the elimination of "bank time".

Under bank time, staff were allowed to take half an hour off each week to cash their pay cheques, even though they had been paid electronically for years.

CPSU President Denis Walshe said the elimination of bank time had been tantamount to a 1.6% pay cut.

The Waterford General branch, which proposed the motion instructing the executive to pursue the claim, said it would be cost neutral.

It was voted through without a debate.

The union also voted to campaign against the fiscal treaty in the upcoming referendum.

The vote was almost unanimous, and no speaker spoke in favour.

The union's annual conference is taking place in Cork and will conclude tomorrow.

Earlier today, the CPSU said it will resist any attempt to impose unreasonable redeployment on members, according to General Secretary Eoin Ronayne.

He said he feared that some civil servants would have no option but to resign if their redeployment resulted in additional fuel costs, which they could not afford.

He told his union's annual conference in Cork that the Croke Park Agreement had extended the redeployment distance to 45km from a public service worker's home or existing work location.

However, he said members are now being forcibly redeployed on a "last in first out" basis, which is creating real personal problems particularly in rural areas where public transport is non-existent.

He cited the situation where members in a Department of Agriculture office in Raphoe, Co Donegal, were being moved 45km away to Buncrana.

Mr Ronayne said some members had no personal transport, but even if they did, additional petrol could cost €100 per week.

He said that was an unsustainable and unacceptable burden for a clerical officer on between €450 and €500 a week.

The union's general secretary accused public service management of failing to fully avail of alternatives to redeployment.

He said it was high time for "joined up thinking" from government departments.

CPSU urges no increments freezing

Earlier, Mr Ronayne warned of confrontation if the Government makes any move to freeze increments or reduce allowances for existing staff.

He said members had already taken a 14% attack on their pay and could not take any more.

Any move to impose further cuts could well be the straw that broke the camel's back, he added.

He said that any move to freeze or withhold increments would be resisted, because increments were not bonus or productivity payments.

The conference heard that any change to current attendance allowances, additional duties allowances and on premium payments were part of normal pay.

He described them as legitimate service based increases, which recognised the skill and experience of staff.

The general secretary said stopping increments would be to discriminate against younger and lower paid workers - many of whom were granted mortgages on the basis of incremental progression in their salaries.

He also called for restoration of the pay cut for public servants earning under €35,000.

Mr Ronayne said austerity had failed and the lowest paid were facing crippling debt and unbearable pressure.

He said pay restoration as envisaged by the Croke Park Agreement would make absolute sense, because money awarded to lower paid workers would immediately find its way into the economy driving and protecting private sector employment in business.

He reiterated union calls for a stimulus and growth plan to create jobs.