Union row over promotions may block civil service decentralisation

THE biggest civil service union in the country yesterday threatened to block Government decentralisation plans because of a promotions row.

Rosaleen Glackin, deputy general secretary of the 13,000-member Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), said the union’s support for decentralisation was ‘absolutely conditional’ on securing promotional opportunities for those that continued to be based in Dublin.

“While we have been strong supporters of the plan, we will not see our Dublin members who have built their lives in the capital left behind,” she told the annual CPSU conference in Killarney.

The Government is already meeting firm resistance to its proposal to move 10,300 civil service posts from Dublin to other parts of the company.

Ms Glackin called on the Government to engage positively with the unions on a revised promotions policy.

“If we do not get this, the CPSU will have no option but to withdraw its support for the plan,” she told delegates.

Ms Glackin said that while her union had been the most positive of the civil service unions towards decentralisation, it was strongly opposed to the promotions policy under the plan.

The union is seeking changes and wants seniority for civil servants who are moving departments to facilitate decentralisation.

It also says that those willing to decentralise should have access to seniority and promotion prior to actually transferring.

Exploitation of non-national workers was also highlighted at the conference and CPSU president Betty Tyrrell-Collard called for a radical overhaul of the work permit system.

“The unscrupulous practices of some employers must be ended,” she said.

She added that the answer lay in giving non-national workers ownership of their work permits.

Ms Tyrrell-Collard said the present system was like a form of bonded labour to which Irish people were subjected in Van Dieman’s Land in the 1850s.

“I don’t think we need the stigma that comes from treating migrant workers in the same way as Irish emigrants were treated in the past,” she remarked.

She also demanded additional labour inspectors to ensure that employers complied with employment regulations.