Governement attacks workers through hiring freeze in public sector

by Anarchivist Wed Apr 01, 2009 16:14

This is the circular. Its so extreme that its likely to cause trouble very quickly. No matter how much the ICTU misleaders wish to colaborate thet know their members won't swallow this.

Mr/Mrs
Secretary General/Head of Office
Department of …..

27 March 2009

Implementation of Savings Measures on Public Service Numbers

Dear…..

1. I refer to the Government Decision S180/20/10/0964C of 3 February and 24 arch 2009 arising from the Memoranda for the Government on the above matter.

2. I am to direct that, with effect from the date of this letter to end 2010, no public service post, however arising, may be filled by recruitment, promotion, nor payment of an allowance for the performance of duties at a higher grade. Therefore when vacancies arise Departments/agencies etc must reallocate or reorganise work or staff accordingly. Any exceptions to this principle, which will arise in very limited circumstances only, require the prior sanction of the Minister for Finance. The decision also applies to temporary appointments on a fixed-term basis and to the renewal of such contracts.

3. The Minister may sanction the filling of posts through the redeployment of staff of the same or equivalent grade from another Department/Office or public body. Secretaries General and Heads of Office must ensure that their Departments and Offices (and, where relevant, bodies under the aegis of their Department/Office) comply fully and expeditiously with all requests and directions from the Minister for Finance in relation to the redeployment of staff. Arrangements for consultations with staff representatives on redeployment will be the subject of separate correspondence with your Department

4. From the date of this letter, all existing delegated sanctions in relation to staff numbers, grading, promotions, recruitment and related issues are withdrawn both in relation to your Department/Office and bodies under the aegis of your Department/Office.

5. No offers of appointment, promotion or allowance for the performance of duties of a higher grade may be made from the date of this letter without the approval of the Minister for Finance (any such offer in progress should not proceed without the express approval of this Department). Any competitions/promotions currently in progress should not proceed further without the express sanction of this Department.

6. As the Government Decision comprehends the wider public service , you should communicate this direction immediately to all relevant bodies under the aegis of your Department/Office, and send a copy of your direction to the relevant Vote Section of this Department.

7 New authorised staffing complements will be determined by Government in the light of any recommendations of the Special Group on Numbers and Public Expenditure, and communicated in due course.

Yours sincerely

Donal McNally
Second Secretary General
Sectoral Policy Division

by Tagger Wed Apr 01, 2009 22:43

The answer to this shambles is to get rid of the top Union dudes, does it have to be spelt out, these dudes are collaborators, there are not there with workers interests at heart any bets that Begg will end up a Senator, you can bet your bottom dollar on it, what is wrong with the workers how many times do they have to get kicked in the mouth before they wake up.Sack them.

by puca Fri Apr 03, 2009 01:25

No doubt the state and the class it represents will happily have regular working and middle class people, and their kids, carry the can for the bust. That means lower wages, higher taxes and deteorating services with more circuses like the ideas campaign and live aid. but to claim that a hiring freeze in the public sector is a bad idea is totally off the mark. Have you seen the numbers, recently published? The revenue shortfall for the exchequer is 10 times what it was 1 years ago. At the current rate of growth the annualised government spending deficit will be bigger than its income. Tot that up over a few years and we are on track to make the 80s look innocent. It means that the educatoin system will still be crap in ten years and we still won't have a decent medical service, those are the kinds of 'sacrafices' that are being made by FF and their stupid collaborators in the unions right now. Huge government debt in Ireland will bury peoples standards of living, except for those who have lots of money. This governments track record of increasing the number of workers in the public service has been worse than useless. Loads more money being spent on both education and health without any increase in the number of teachers or frontline medical staff. This money is literally being thrown away for votes. Much better to squander the money betting on the grand national, more public sector non jobs are not the answer to Irelands economic problems.

by Me Fein Fri Apr 03, 2009 09:57

Perceptive letter in today's Indo:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/capitalism-is....html
.

by The Sage Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:36

"At the current rate of growth"

This morning it was announced that the Irish economy will SHRINK by 7% this year.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0403/...7.htm

(At that rate we will have no economy at all in just 14 years!)

.

by Accountant Fri Apr 03, 2009 13:39

Breaking News in the Irish Times:

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0403/...2.htm

Sobering reading about the real position in the Public Service.

The Gravy Train comes to mind.

by Andrew Fri Apr 03, 2009 14:35

H'mm so in 2008 Public sector wages increased 3.2%
Inflation in 2008 was expected to be around 4.5% (not sure if an actual figure is available yet)

So when you take inflation into account PS workers earned less at the end of 2008 then they did at the start

And in March 2008 PS workers took a pay cut of between 4-10% so that now they earn less then they did in 2007

So even without taking inflation into account PS workers now earn much less then they did in Dec 2007

Was this the point your were trying to make?

In any case apart the point of this article is that the hiring freeze is an attack on the working class as a whole because it means a loss of the services like health and education that we all (or our families) rely on. It is of course also an additional attack on PS workers as, most of them being decent people, they will try and maintain the same level of service as far as possible. Which means a lot more work for a lot less money. All the while the Anglo 10 get away with their 400 million.

by Accountant Fri Apr 03, 2009 16:02

"The hiring freeze is an attack on the working class as a whole "

I would really love to know what planet you come from Andrew.

The country is sinking into the MIRE and you analyse the problem using Marxist gobbledegook from the Age of the Steam Engine.

NOBODY is "attacking the working class".

The government was elected, by what you call the Working Class, to GOVERN.

Incidentally it is the Germans ,our erstwhile friends,who are really pouring scorn on Irish Public Sector pay rates.

The fact that even Junior Ministers in Ireland are paid more than Angela Merkel has been widely ridiculed in the German Press.

The Germans are the ones we will have to go cap-in-hand to in a few more months after our economy finally collapses.

They may well tell us to F**K off .

by Topper Fri Apr 03, 2009 16:28

"The hiring freeze is an attack on the working class as a whole "

I would really love to know what planet you come from Andrew.

The country is sinking into the MIRE and you analyse the problem using Marxist gobbledegook from the Age of the Steam Engine."

Interesting, interesting, so the working class vanished when the last steam-power train was replaced by diesel and electricity? Just as well you're an accountant, not an economist or a sociologist.

Sorry to offend your delicate sensibilities with "Marxist gobbledegook", but in Ireland, there are a large number of people who work for wages and salaries, commonly known as "workers". Some of them work in factories, some in shops, some in offices; some have third-level qualifications, others don't; some work for the public sector, some for private companies. You can claim if you like that people are only "working class" if they do manual labour, get their hands dirty while they work and wear a cloth cap - it doesn't change the reality that the majority of people in Ireland are workers (or dependents of workers) who earn less than €40,000 a year (often considerably less), and depend on public services. They all suffer when the government imposes a recruitment freeze on the public service - some suffer because they can't find jobs, others suffer because the standard of public provision (already much lower than most European countries) falls.

"NOBODY is "attacking the working class".

The government was elected, by what you call the Working Class, to GOVERN."

I don't recall FF facing the electorate in the last election and saying "we will impose savage cutbacks in public services and preside over massive job losses and wage cuts, while protecting the rich from sharing any of the pain of the economic crisis and bailing out our banker and developer friends with billions of euro of taxpayers' money". I don't think they would have done too well with that manifesto. As I remember, there was a lot of talk about how they were the only ones who could be trusted to keep the economy on track - that didn't turn out so well did it?

"Incidentally it is the Germans ,our erstwhile friends,who are really pouring scorn on Irish Public Sector pay rates.

The fact that even Junior Ministers in Ireland are paid more than Angela Merkel has been widely ridiculed in the German Press."

Despite your handle, you don't seem to understand basic principles of accountancy very well. This is a bit like saying "Ryanair workers are the best paid staff in the world, just look at the money Michael O'Leary gets every year!" Our over-paid politicians should indeed be the targets of ridicule (and outrage), along with the other people at the top levels of the civil service, RTE, the HSE and so on who get six- or even seven-figure salaries. This has absolutely nothing to do with the vast majority of public-sector workers, whose pay and conditions are on a completely different planet from the likes of Martin Mansergh and all the other useless junior ministers. Try to say something that even comes near to making sense, please.

by puca Fri Apr 03, 2009 18:38

Sage, sages usually think before they speak. The growth I refer to, which is obvious if you read what I wrote, is the growth in government debt as a consequence of the shrinking economy.

Topper writes

"I don't recall FF facing the electorate in the last election and saying "we will impose savage cutbacks in public services and preside over massive job losses and wage cuts, while protecting the rich from sharing any of the pain of the economic crisis and bailing out our banker and developer friends with billions of euro of taxpayers' money". I don't think they would have done too well with that manifesto. As I remember, there was a lot of talk about how they were the only ones who could be trusted to keep the economy on track - that didn't turn out so well did it?"

If iM not mistaken a good portion of the working class voted for FF in the last election and the promise was "more of the same". Thats what people voted for, basically to keep the musical chairs property bubble game going. This collapse is a direct result of that, a con that everyone can get rich by selling houses to each other. But when the music stopped we suddenly realise that mad house prices have pushed up the cost of everything and that Ireland is now more expensive to live and work in than the UK, Germany, France, Spain, the USA. These are countries with real economies that make things that can be sold to others. Ireland has been living in a dreamscape whereby the bosses persuade everyone that they live in the greatest, happiest, richest, smartest country in the world when in fact they live inside a ponzi scheme. The working class should not be surprised that FF will take care of their mates and fuck everyone else. They always do that but the workers (particularly public sector workers) keep voting for them because they actually admire the gangsterism and don't think through what is going on. If they did thousands of workers would not have gotten loans they couldnt afford for houses and apartments they don't want to live in on the assumption that there will be another sucker to pick it up off them at a profit.

There is a risk of infantilising everyone except the ruling gangs if we exclude all agency of workers in how this came about. Every single adult knows FF are a criminal conspiracy. They vote for them in full knowledge that they are corrupt but people seem to think either 'the others are worse" or that they can benefit regardless because they are smart enough or because they are in the public sector and FF always keep them happy.

I hate that FF have managed to divide people along the public/private sector fault line. But there is growing resentment among private sector workers about the difference in pay and benefits. The public sector in Ireland employs 350 000+ people, that is in an economy with less than 2m workers. PS workers are paid higher than their European counterparts across the board. FF have increased the PS wage bill by 35% in the last few years while services have deteriorated. That is incredible but it is true. Everyone can tell you stories about how crap the public sector is in Ireland and its not because people dont get paid well. Im currently dealing with a public agency over a basic business transaction that is absolutely routine in this industry. The staff involved completely fucked up the job, it will cost me weeks of time and probably the guts of 2k euro out of my pocket. No recourse on my part, its basically a fuck you situation. IN the private sector these people would get their shit together or be out the door. not so in this case. FF could stick a few more into this office and it wont make a difference except to generate a few more votes. Now this is not in health or ed but overall the service provided by this organisation is very poor. Yet its staff levels are three times the size of its UK equivalent.

Andrew writes
"In any case apart the point of this article is that the hiring freeze is an attack on the working class as a whole because it means a loss of the services like health and education that we all (or our families) rely on. It is of course also an additional attack on PS workers as, most of them being decent people, they will try and maintain the same level of service as far as possible. Which means a lot more work for a lot less money. All the while the Anglo 10 get away with their 400 million.'

All things being equal I would agree that a hiring freeze should negatively impact service but in the case of irelands public service Im not sure. If increasing staff and wage levels cant increase the standard and level of service then holding them as they are will not necessarily result in a deterioration, or perhaps more acurately adding new workers will not necessarily improve service. As i argue above FF have done it to an insane degree over the last decade and what have we got to show for it?

Bottom line is, Ireland is too expensive. As a tiny peripheral economy it needs an export industry and to be able to compete to attract foreign investors to locate in Ireland. But housing, wage levels, transport etc are all way over the odds when compared to our European counterparts. The people who run the country have no strategy whatsoever to regain competitiveness or create an economy that will sustain peoples lives with decent standards of living. Increasing the size of the public service now is simply reducing services in the future. Thats not to say they won't do it. If it will win the next election for them they probably will.