THE DEPARTMENT of Finance has told trade unions that the Government wants to introduce new arrangements to allow it to redeploy staff between Civil Service departments and between the Civil Service and non-commercial State bodies where necessary.
At talks yesterday, unions were told that the department would determine the future numbers for each area in the Civil Service and that surplus posts would be liable to be redeployed.
The Department of Finance said that where there were insufficient volunteers to move that “staff to be made available for re-deployment should be identified in accordance with [the principle of] last-in, first-out”.
The proposals state that the Minister for Finance reserves the right to redeploy civil servants where services or functions are to be re-allocated between departments; to meet service needs; or to address needs arising from rationalisation, restructuring , reconfiguration or reorganisation.
The document says that the Government has divided the country into 14 geographic regions within which staff could be moved.
It states that the Public Appointment Service will establish resource panels by region for each general service grade.
“Staff on resource panels may be assigned to another Civil Service job at the appropriate grade in an alternative department within the region. In making offers of redeployment, regard will be had to reasonable daily commute,” it says.
The identification of surplus posts and any vacancies to be filled in non-commercial State-sponsored bodies (NCSSB) “will be a matter for management in the various bodies, and their parent department in consultation with the Department of Finance . . . A person from a surplus identified in an NCSSB in any region may be offered a vacancy in the Civil Service, where no suitable person from within the Civil Service is available in that region and where qualifications and expertise can be matched with the requirements of the post to be filled.”
Union sources said last night that they would be studying the proposals and that they may need some work. Some sources said that the problems would “not be insurmountable”.
Last week the Health Service Executive proposed the compulsory redeployment of staff to up to 60km from their existing workplace. These proposals are to be reviewed to take account of concerns raised by unions.