Croke Park deal means increments argument will always get ignored

The Government would appear to have two choices — continue to pay public service increments of €180m or look for some other way of completing the €3.5bn in savings sought through the Croke Park deal.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar’s suggestion earlier this week that the increments be deferred for a year reignited a debate that raged just before last year’s budget.

Just as then, the same premise applies now. A cut in the increments would, as far as unions are concerned, constitute a cut in pay, particularly for younger, less well-off workers. In that regard it would also constitute a breach of the Croke Park deal on public service reform which, at this stage, guarantees against any pay cuts.

Critics of the increments system have long argued that they are, by their nature, pay increases which occur by dint of longevity, not performance. Workers receive the additional payments simply for staying in the job long enough to progress through the ranks.

It could be argued that this makes a mockery of the supposed pay freeze across the public service. Even the Department of Public Expenditure, in its own survey reported in the Sunday Business Post, found that increments were not “an effective tool” in managing performance and were overly bureaucratic and inconsistent.

Increments are forecast to cost the economy less than €90m in 2012, compared to €180m in the previous year. The Government says the reduction is due to “significantly reduced recruitment, the ongoing substantial fall in numbers of public servants, and higher numbers reaching the maxima of scales”.

“This cost will continue to fall over the coming years,” it adds.

However, the numbers who still share in the payouts are substantial. For example, according to 2011 civil service data, approximately 37% of civil servants (11,083 of 30,288) were eligible for an annual increment in that year.

Of those, 53% were clerical officer or lower (196 service officers, 5,677 clerical officers).

That is the crux of the argument unions use against the removal of the payments. Such a move would take nothing from the public service’s high earners. They have already completed the scale. Rather, it would be low to medium grades who would be penalised.

Government officials have confirmed that, for example, following the pay reductions applied in Jan 2010, the pay rate of a clerical officer who joined the civil service after 1995 ranges from a starting point of €23,177. A worker on that bottom rung would take 17 years to reach €37,341 through the increments system.

“Not to pay these increments now would mean lower-paid workers would fall behind their more experienced colleagues and ensure the lowest-paid carried an unfair burden for the financial difficulties being faced by the public service,” according to Civil Public and Services Union general secretary Eoin Ronayne.

For as long as the Croke Park deal remains in existence, the calls for increments to be reviewed will continue — but will continue to be ignored.

€100k staff

A total of 236 staff in the country’s city and county council are earning over €100,000 a year, according to the minister for the environment. These staff are city and county managers, assistant city and county managers, and directors of services in the various departments.

The information was given to People Before Profit TD Joan Collins following a parliamentary question.

In Dublin City Council, 36.8 staff have broken the €100k threshold, while nine have done so in Cork City Council. Cork County Council has 13 employees earning over €100k while Kerry and Limerick County Council have six.

Nine of the staff in Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown earn more than €100,000 while seven do in Fingal County Council.

— Claire O’Sullivan