Union chief unhappy with government redundancy scheme

A union chief is sounding a warning about the government's new redundancy scheme for the public sector.

Thousands of jobs are set to go on a voluntary basis in the coming months but little detail about the plan has been released so far.

The Civil and Public Services Union represents about 13,000 people in the civil service.

General Secretary Eoin Ronayne wants a blanket offer of redundancy across the sector, rather than targeting specific areas.

“The critical issue here is where is it going to be applied and how is it going to be applied within the civil service? That’s not at all clear.

“We would have great difficulties if it was to be imposed on a targeted basis. For instance, if there was a surplus, if they say ‘we have too many people here, so these people will be offered redundancy’, that’s effectively compulsory redundancy.”