Civil Service 'privilege day' perks escape axe
Swingeing cuts for public servants won't target 'benefits gravy train'
Sunday November 08 2009
CIVIL SERVANTS may be gearing up for swingeing cutbacks in the 2009 Budget but their expensive perks such as extra days off may yet escape the axe.
The Department of Finance said it has not asked civil servants to forego their two privilege days which are believed to cost taxpayers up to €12m a year. The privilege days were originally intended as travel days to allow civil servants from rural areas time to return to Dublin after bank holidays.
During the Celtic Tiger boom the privilege days had become synonymous with shopping days in the run up to Christmas and Easter.
They are not the only perks enjoyed by civil servants.
They also enjoy five days paid leave if they get married, in addition to their annual leave. Civil servants who adopt a baby are entitled to 20 weeks paid leave. If public holidays fall during the period they are off work, the civil servants can then claim them back on their return.
They also receive an allowance of €20.50 a week if their duties include carrying keys to official buildings -- to reflect the "responsibility" attached to the task. In addition, civil servants who are assigned to driving duties on a daily basis are paid an allowance of €30 a week, or €15 a week if their driving services are only occasionally required.
During talks on the allowances, staff negotiators claimed that driving official vehicles had become a "more stressful and demanding duty, especially because of the congested traffic conditions in the Dublin area", according to a circular on the agreement.
They also claimed that, in several cases, "departments had been unable to find services officers willing to carry out this duty because of these circumstances".
There are also perks for civilian drivers for Ministers of State. The drivers usually work on a week-on week-off basis, getting paid for both their on and off weeks. If they have to work on their "off" week -- to fill in for a sick colleague for example -- they get paid for two weeks' work, in addition to their usual salary.
Civil servants are also entitled to paid leave to train with voluntary search and rescue organisations.
While private sector workers generally have to volunteer their services, civil servants get up to 10 days off, with pay, to train with the Royal Coast Guard, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution or Irish Water Safety.
A request for five days' paid leave for civil servants who looked after children from Chernobyl and other troubled areas was rejected in 2002.
Civil service unions also lobbied unsuccessfully in 2006 to increase the 31 days of holidays senior civil servants are entitled to. The unions based their argument on the fact that a director service at Waterford County Council received 34 days' leave; a counterpart in South Tipperary got 36 and the post in Sligo came with 38 days plus two privilege days.
The request for more holidays was rejected on the grounds that the civil servants already had far better holidays than the private sector, where 80 per cent at principal officer salary level in the private sector received 29 days' leave or less.
Civil servants also receive generous benefits to cope with tragedies. They are entitled to take 10 days compassionate leave on the death of a parent, spouse or child, in an agreement negotiated in 2007.
Unions had lobbied to allow staff who suffered a bereavement while on sick leave to get the bereavement leave tagged on to the end of their sick leave. This, the union argued, would help the civil servants cope better with the process of bereavement.
The request was rejected: "Bereavement leave is granted only at the time of the bereavement and not at the end of, or instead of, sick leave," a circular noted.
- MAEVE SHEEHAN
Sunday Independent
