Civil servants oppose ‘bank time’ loss

THE uphill battle to save billions of euro through public service reform is starkly illustrated by lower paid civil servants’ refusal to even give up the half-hour they are given each week to bank their pay cheques.

In what was one of the first hurdles in implementing the Croke Park deal, the Government wanted civil servants from next month to forgo “bank time” – the half-hour given to them either weekly or fortnightly to cash their cheques.

“Bank time” was introduced in the 1970s. Though stopped for new entrants to the civil service in 2003, the majority of civil servants still have the facility.