Underperforming civil servants: Promises are not enough
It is hard not to think the this is another instalment of the ‘oul guff used to placate a citizenship ever more bewildered by how one section of society can be treated so differently from their peers. Benchmarking, and the Croke Park and Haddington Road agreements have all come and gone but there has been no real change to confront the situation that must infuriate the great majority of civil servants who are committed to their work — their colleagues who do not perform to a professional level but are untouchable.
That situation is exacerbated by the fact, if you have the nerve to describe such a preposterous suggestion as such, that less than 1% of civil servants are deemed to be underperformers. If that is the case we are indeed blessed with an exceptional cohort of public workers.
The divide between public and private sector workers is very unhelpful and indeed dangerous. Both groups have generally the same needs and objectives but as long as a minority in one group is allowed to live in a fantasy world then division is inevitable. Unless this policy announcement leads to real change then that divide will only deepen.
