Creche facilities for 30,000 civil servants are to be put on hold because of plans to decentralise Government services. The equality officer of the Civil and Public Service Union, Ms Gaye Dalton, has told delegates to the annual conference that every Government department is to relocate at least one office under the plan.
Ms Dalton was reporting back yesterday on talks with the Department of Finance on improving childcare facilities for civil servants. At present there is only one Civil Service creche, based in Mount Street, Dublin, which accommodates 44 children.
Plans to include a creche in a new Department for the Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands building at Parkgate Street, Dublin, have now been put on hold.
Ms Dalton said this was because of the decentralisation plans. There had been no official response yet on childcare initiatives, she added, but unofficially the Department of Finance had said "everything was on hold".
"How serious is the Government about childcare when it is not prepared to address the issue as an employer?" she asked.
She said the Department of Finance and the Department of Health and Children had indicated that creche provisions would be based on a review of the Mount Street service, "but there is no indication on the time-scale of decentralisation. This new policy will impact not just on childcare but on housing provision, everything."
Progress has been made in some areas. The term-time agreement that allowed staff in four Government departments to take between 10 and 13 weeks unpaid leave during the summer, to coincide with school holidays last year, is to be extended to a further four Departments this year. However, labour shortages could affect the ability of some Departments to grant requests for leave.
The union is close to concluding an agreement on 28 different patterns of work for job-sharers. These include working three days a week, working mornings only, working two weeks out of four and six months out of 12.
A major problem over seniority has been resolved after the Attorney General's office agreed that anyone working at least eight hours a week will retain full seniority for promotion and incremental pay purposes.
Another scheme provides for up to 60 teleworking posts in the Houses of the Oireachtas. Members of the CPSU and other public service unions servicing tribunals and Oireachtas committees will be involved.
They will have to have a specific area of their home designated as an office and will be given an electricity allowance and modem connection.
They will be required to work in the Oireachtas offices at least one day a week, but Ms Dalton said that if teleworking could be found to work there "it can work anywhere in the Civil Service".