Civil service’s automatic pay hikes to end
One of the country’s top civil servants has suggested overhauling how staff are rewarded after admitting there are “legacy” issues and problems with the current rules for pay.
The secretary general of the Department of Public Expenditure, Robert Watt, said his officials are negotiating with trade unions about potential new disciplinary measures for staff.
His comments came during a briefing on shared services in the civil service and how amalgamating resources had saved funds. It is estimated savings of up to €50m a year could be generated under the move.
Mr Watt said a future pay model could see staff moved up or down grades, according to their performances.
“Over the medium term, our ambition would be to move to different pay models. I don’t think automatic incremental pay necessarily serves our purpose now,” said Mr Watt.
“I think a model of pay which has a greater element of pay linked to performance would be better.”
He admitted that under the current system, the “legacy issues” made this very difficult. “We would like to look at different types of pay models in the future. My own opinion is that we need to be having a debate and think about moving away from incremental progression to different pay [models].”
Mr Watt said such matters would be an issue for the next government and future negotiations with workers.
“In the past, we have been found lacking when it comes to having proper conversations with people who are not performing to having a disciplinary process that is fit for purpose.”
Mr Watt said that under the civil service renewal plan, the Government had put in place a new approach to performance management. “We’re discussing with the trade unions a new approach to disciplinary issues. We hope to have in place a new, more robust way of monitoring performance,” said Mr Watt, adding that this is to ensure issues which had previously been put to one side and forgotten about are addressed.
He admitted there was no timeline for the proposed changes. “We do know that when it comes to underperformance, we’ve historically had a challenge.”
Mr Watt said a new system of performance assessment for secretaries general in departments would be introduced next year.
The current system for reviewing pay rises and promotions for civil servants has been described by TDs as flawed, after recent reviews concluded that fewer than 1% of workers received a negative review.
A 2012 internal review by the Department of Public Expenditure found the performance of just 0.08% of staff was ranked as “unacceptable” while 0.84% were seen as needing improvement.
It is understood over €1bn is spent employing up to 30,000 civil service staff.
Mr Watt said the current system for dealing with staff considered not to be performing was “too cumbersome” and was “challenged every step of the way”.
Business19
