Monthly Archives: July 2015

CPSU News Update

News Update: 016/15

To:    Each Branch Secretary & Chair – Attention All Members
Date: 31st July 2015
News Update: 016/15
RE: LRA, Aontas, ICTU BDC, Social Protection, PeoplePoint, Garda, & Justice, DSP, RSA

LRA Ballot

The Ballot on the LRA gets underway on Monday August 24th and last completed ballots must be received by first post in Head Office on Monday 14th of September. This time the ballot is being conducted using Branch Ballot Lists by workplace location. It affects Civil Servants and Public Servants but not members working in commercial state companies and private companies.

Standing Orders will complete the ballot count on the 14th.

Branch Secretaries are urged to arrange Branch General Meetings to allow for consideration and debate of the terms of the LRA. Please contact Ann Murphy in Head Office on amurphy@cpsu.ie to advise of the planned meeting and to help us provide a Head Office Official.     Please also see 123/15 issued today for more detail on this important matter.

 General Council / Central issues

Disciplinary code review

The review of the disciplinary code will commence during the month of September, with a number of meetings scheduled for the sub-committee of Council. Thus far we have taken part in a workshop at which we set out our thinking on what we see as necessary revisions to the code. We expect to see a draft revised code at our first meeting in September. It is clear though from a planning meeting held last week that Government have considerably more in their mind than just revising the code, including;

  • A change in the appropriate authority for the sanction of discipline
  • A much greater focus on underperformance
  • A mechanism to deal with difficult cases that don’t naturally fit the disciplinary code

It is likely that a review of the grievance procedure will also commence shortly.

 

New Claims  

We are working on claims from Conference for General Council and we will also issue an updated action on motions 2015 booklet to Branches in the near future. Please note we have already lodged a submission to Arbitration for compensation for bank time and have lodged a claim seeking to restore marriage leave to previous levels.

PeoplePoint

Discussions continue with People point Management on a range of issues, particularly backlogs in leave, pensions and overpayments. We have managed to secure agreement on additional staff for the overpayment recoupment area and we continue the discussion on staffing levels overall. The panel has formally written seeking a deferral of tranche 6 and 7 planned for the latter part of the year. We await an answer. There is much rumour afoot in Peoplepoint about the future and this matter was raised at this week’s General Council, where senior DPER Management scotched rumours of outsourcing and confirmed that the Heads of Bill were being prepared to establish Peoplepoint as a statutory agency, something that was always in the planning.

Treatment of pregnancy related sick leave

Agreed Changes to the Sick Leave Regulations

The Sick Leave Regulations will now be amended following agreement to reflect the Minister’s decision, as follows;

  1. Transitional Arrangement: To discount all pregnancy-related sick leave that occurred before the introduction of the new Public Service Sick Leave Scheme for the purpose of calculating access to paid sick leave under the current Scheme.
  2. Ongoing Arrangement: A woman who has exhausted her access to paid sick leave due to pregnancy-related sick leave in the previous 4 years may have access to additional non-pregnancy-related sick leave at the half rate of pay. The number of additional days allowed, as follows;

 

  • Will be the equivalent number of days taken on pregnancy related sick leave in the 4 years;
  • Must not exceed normal sick leave limits (e.g. 183 days) for non-pregnancy-related sick leave (when counted with other non-pregnancy related sick leave in the previous 4 years).

Please see Circular 121 -310715 issued today for more detail. A number of queries are being received on foot of the circular and we will be checking these against the change, looking at potential pay or overpayments issues as they arise and will get back to members very shortly on these queries.

Department of Justice

The Union issued a detailed circular to Justice members today dealing with matters under discussion at Departmental Council yesterday, including;

  • The use of the Solicitor’s panel in ORAC/ INIS
  • Immigration Control Dublin Airport

Probation Service

The Council also dealt with our outstanding claim which seeks to have the Flexi-Time System that is available to members in the Civil Service made available to members throughout the Probation Service.  A number of issues arise here in so far as Management are only proposing a modified version of the system as they believe the Offices could not cope with the full Civil Service System.  Also members need to think about whether they actually want flexi time, as Management are insisting that if we can agreed it, it will have to be introduced uniformly with no opt out and that any local arrangements would cease.  In this context members should advise their position on this matter to our Executive member Laura Byrne in Castlebar.

Garda Civilian

Following the Commissioner’s announcement preparations are being made in Navan HR for the EO competition and we will continue to keep members posted on this issue. We have also written to management again today in relation to our concerns over delegated sanction, or lack of, as a result of on-going budget negotiations and the impact it is having on filling vacancies, creating new posts and deepening the civilianisation process. Discussions will continue with Management in August. We have told them though that cooperation with any new initiatives will have to be considered against the backdrop of resourcing issues and already we have advised that proposals for work changes in GISC, planned for October will not receive cooperation from our members.

DSP

Scanning- training has commenced for the roll out of scanning in various locations around the country. A presentation was given to some members of the DSP National Committee last week. While we welcome the introduction of scanning we have raised concerns about

 

 

the possible increase it time for appointments. Management have assured us that they will discuss locally any changes that may be needed to address this.

Intreo – Newbridge Intreo office opened on Monday 20th July. Staff have moved into their new accommodation.

Road Safety Authority

Agreement has been reached on implementation of HCO in the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

 

Derek Mullen                                                                                                                                      Deputy General Secretary

 

CPSU Circular

CRC-112/15-TTIP Demonstration

TO:  EACH BRANCH SECRETARY – DUBLIN
CIR: 112/15
DATE: 14th July 2015
RE: TTIP Demonstration

Dear Branch Secretary,

The Peoples Movement are organising a demonstration against TTIP at 1:00 pm tomorrow, Wednesday July 15th outside the EU Parliament Building in Molesworth Street, Dublin 2, to mark the Tenth Round of negotiations which are scheduled to take place in Brussels this week.

It is hoped that following the unanimous adoption by the ICTU Biennial Delegate Conference of the resolution to stop TTIP, that more unions and members will participate on Wednesday, as the strongest force against this deal is the combined strength of the trade union movement.

CPSU Flags are available at Head Office if Branches require them.

The demo will end at 1.45 pm.

Yours sincerely,
Eoin Ronayne
General Secretary

 

 

Other

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