An Post’s ‘rubber room’- An abuse of privilege

AN POST’S “rubber room” symbolises all that is dishonest and wrong about our public service and semi-state companies.

The “rubber room” is where managers who are “surplus” to requirements are deployed. Hidden away might be a better description. It is so called, a helpful union representative tells us, because “people were banging their heads off the walls because they were doing nothing”.

An An Post manager, a “rubber room” incumbent, has been awarded a bonus of €11,000 on top of his €95,000 salary despite doing little or nothing but marking time until he collected a bomb-proof, better-than-inflation pension.

Remember, this is just one semi-state, just one office in one city. It is hard not to believe that every semi-state and every government department does not have a “rubber room” or at least a rubber-padded corner in some of its offices around the country. This is the kind of waste, though a stronger word is equally applicable, that makes these organisations so susceptible to criticism. This is the kind of waste that so enrages people trying to run a business, or private sector employees paying tax to subsidise this kind of farce.

Though it is stating the obvious for anyone working in the real world, it seems necessary to point out to those who tolerated this abuse that this would not be possible in the private sector.

The public sector and semi-state companies are indeed a different country.