Staff shortages in some areas of the public service are now so severe that management should be authorsied to offer higher pay where necessary to attract candidates, according to the Fórsa trade union.
Speaking at Fórsa's Civil Service Division conference in Killarney, union official Andy Pike said state bodies were experiencing difficulties in recruiting staff in a number of areas - including meteorologists, solicitors, valuers, Oireachtas researchers and translators, agricultural officers, and special education needs organisers.
He said that the recruitment difficulties were not limited to professional or technical areas, and that some bodies - including the Department of the Taoiseach, had struggled even to hire cleaners in recent months.
He claimed the starting pay for cleaners at the Garda training college in Templemore was €9.10 per hour, which is below the legal minimum for private sector contract cleaners.
He told delegates that a recent competition to recruit permanent civilian posts in Dublin Garda stations had to be re-run because there were so few applicants.
Following a recent competition for meteorologists, only three weather forecaster posts were filled, with eight candidates refusing jobs because of low starting salaries.
He said that all but one of 20 candidates offered posts as Special Educational Needs Organisers had rejected offers of jobs.
Mr Pike claimed that across the state's laboratories, law offices and many specialist agencies, the current starting salaries are no longer competitive compared to the private sector labour market for specialist staff.
He also highlighted the recent loss of scientists from the Forensic Services Laboratory.
Mr Pike said these problems had been outlined in the union's submission to the Public Service Pay Commission whose review of staff recruitment and retention issues in the public service is ongoing.
Overpayment 'epidemic'
Today's conference also heard that overpayments to civil servants have reached "epidemic" proportions since a centralised human resources operation called PeoplePoint was set up by the Government.
Fórsa National Secretary Derek Mullen said that, in one case, a worker had to reimburse an overpayment of €14,000 within one year.
The National Shared Services Office, which oversees PeoplePoint, confirmed to RTÉ News that €3.7m has been overpaid since the centralised HR operation was set up.
However, it stressed that this was only 0.09% of the total amount paid out to public servants under its remit.
Conference delegates are to debate motions calling for the scrapping of the system, and a return of HR operations to individual public service bodies.
PeoplePoint was set up to rationalise human resources operations, including pay, leave and pension arrangements within the civil service, and is a central element of the Government's shared services strategy.
However, according to a survey of almost 1,080 civil servants carried out by Fórsa's civil service division, 83% of respondents have experienced problems with PeoplePoint, and over half have had their pay affected by errors.
The biggest problem of overpayments applied to 23% of respondents, who then had to pay the money back within one year.
19% had problems with annual leave calculations. 7% experienced difficulties in the category of pensions and parental leave.
67% reported delays in resolving their difficulties. 53% complained of poor communications.
37% were disatisfied with how their query was processed, 31% were satisfied, while almost one third of respondents said they were still awaiting an outcome.
However, only 15% said they had registered a formal complaint, with over half saying they were unaware of complaints procedures.
18% had problems regarding sick pay and 6% had difficulties with pension payments.
However, only 15% said they had registered a formal complaint, with over half saying they were unaware of complaints procedures.
A spokesperson for the National Shared Service Office accepted that the service is "not where it needs to be to satisfy users."
It estimates that overpayments came to €3.7 million up to the end of 2017 - an overpayment rate of 0.09%.
However, it stresses that, in 2017 alone, PeoplePoint paid out €4.2bn in pay and pensions to public servants.
It said a review carried out in early 2017 found that the new system had saved €6.4m in the cost of HR services compared to 2012.
The NSSO said that, since its formal complaints procedure went live in mid-2015, it has received a total of 383 complaints out of almost 720,000 transactions, with 44 complaints currently live.
Regarding overpayments, the office said these can occur for a number of reasons, including late notification after payroll has closed, and changes to public service sick leave entitlements.
It also acknowledged there had been 442 data breaches, which it took very seriously.
Civil servants campaign for return to pre-austerity terms and conditions
Civil servants will also continue to campaign for a return to pre-austerity conditions of employment including shorter working hours, according to Fórsa.
Division President Niall McGuirk told the conference in Killarney that last year's Public Service Stability Agreement had put civil servants on a pathway to pay restoration, but said the union would not rest easy until outstanding issues, including working hours and lower new entrant pay, were addressed.
On working hours, he noted that the additional 27 unpaid minutes per day imposed under the Haddington Road Agreement was causing "discomfort" to many members, adding that working time must remain a key Fórsa objective.
Mr McGuirk described this as a "wall that was difficult to breach" in negotiations with the Government.
He acknowledged that a return to pre-Haddington Road working hours across the public service could add a "substantial" sum to the public service pay bill.
However, he warned that, while there are competing demands on what can be achieved in negotiations, working time cannot, and will not, fall off the table.
On pensions, Mr McGuirk said the PSSA pay agreement had staved off Government plans which could have substantially reduced the value of pensions, including proposals to index pensions to inflation rather than the existing link between pensions and salaries, and to calculate all pensions on the basis of career average earnings instead of final salary-based pensions now in place for most civil servants.
However, he acknowledged the price for that was that earnings over €34,500 a year now see the remainder of the pension levy introduced during the economic crisis remained in place, with an explicit link to pensions.
He said this was a "fair trade-off" and should lay the matter of public service pensions to rest.
He told delegates that civil and public servants had always paid for their pensions, through PRSI, a 6.5% salary linked contribution, and the pension levy (averaging around 7% of salary) introduced a decade ago.
Mr McGuirk also stressed that Fórsa would continue to support demands for better pension provision for all workers, regardless of the sector in which they were employed.
He raised concerns about the lower pay rates for public servants recruited since 2011.
Fórsa was formed in January following an amalgamation of IMPACT, the Civil Public and Services Union and the Public Service Executive Union - and with 80,000 members, is now the largest public service union.
Mr McGuirk reminded delegates of the advantages of the merger, adding that they could now share information about common concerns including outsourcing, Government decisions on shared services, working hours and pensions.
