Public sector reform - Staff paid for doing nothing

When the general secretary of the Department of Justice Brian Purcell asked last week, after the publication of a very critical report on how that department operates, to be relieved of his duties one of the consequences that provoked the greatest response was the fact that even though he was to quit he was still guaranteed a €200,000-plus salary in whatever public sector position he might eventually be offered.

This indulgence is so very alien to how the majority of workers lead their lives that it can hardly pass without amazed comment. In the real world when your number’s up, you number’s up and the idea of such a soft landing, no matter how desireable, is so very unusual as to be almost unimaginable.

However, the reality is that the principle seems to apply across the public sector. It seems, despite benchmarking and the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements, that a public-sector job is still regarded as the private property of the incumbent and that it cannot be changed, moved or brought to an end without levels of compensation unknown outside of the parallel universe of the public sector.

Today we report that some creche workers, some of whom have not worked since 2011, are still paid from the public purse because they have not been offered suitable alternative work. Even if the figure involved is relatively small — €1.4m — it seems more than bizarre that this should be the case.

Not only is it an affront to ordinary workers and unemployed people it is another example of the mismanagement that forced three of the country’s most senior civil servants to quit their jobs but move to equally rewarding positions. There are indeed one set of rules for public servants and another set for the rest of us.