‘Exchange’ plan for public sector staff
The head of the Department of Public Expenditure said plans are also developing to get private companies to take over the role of some agencies and services in the public sector.
Robert Watt, department secretary general, criticised management in the public service and said more needed to be done to address gaps at leadership levels.
SIPTU vice president Patricia King attacked senior management who needed to know that the “well was dry” and no more salary cuts could be taken by low-paid workers.
Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Donegal, Mr Watt defended reform in the public sector as well savings made under the Croke Park deal with trade unions.
He said sick leave payments would be halved for workers, as agreed by the Labour Court. Performance targets would also be set for a number of departments units in pilot projects in agriculture, enterprise, transport and public works.
The public sector pay bill would be reduced by 20% by 2015, Garda rosters had been overhauled and 4,500 health workers had changed roles to increase efficiency.
But Mr Watt, whose department oversees reform in the public sector, criticised senior management in state agencies and services. He said there were “many deficiencies” in management and a need for serious leadership in the public sector.
A secondment scheme is being rolled out which will allow public service workers to leave work for three years and enter the private sector.
Around 50 companies initially are being signed up to in turn provide their own workers for the exchange scheme. Exchange schemes will see potentially hundreds of middle-management workers, at principle officer levels or above, be replaced by private workers on an equivalent salary.
Mr Watt said workers could stay in the private sector for up to three years.
The exchange scheme will boost skills for public sector workers but will also add expertise to the department with the placement of private sector employees.
Ms King insisted that the image of the public sector as a “bloated monster” was wrong. Management would be mistaken to tackle budget cuts among ordinary workers or the “low lying fruit”, adding: “The well is dry.”
County council managers were also resisting attempts at reform as were management, she claimed.
Paul Haran, former secretary general at the department of enterprise, told the audience that public service workers had a fear of the comptroller and auditor general, the state’s financial watchdog. If workers were innovative in the workplace, they risked failure, he said.
