THE DEPARTMENT of Finance is threatening to withhold the payment of increments from civil servants refusing to co-operate with a performance-monitoring system in protest at the introduction of the Government’s pension levy for staff in the public sector.
In a letter to the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), the department said unless staff complied with the performance management and development system (PMDS) for this year it would advise departments and offices to desist from paying increments.
The CPSU, which represents 13,000 lower-paid civil servants, has instructed members to continue with an embargo on the performance-monitoring system. The union’s executive committee is to meet today to consider the issue.
In its letter to the union on May 5th, the department said the PMDS was a critical tool in ensuring that all civil servants delivered services to the highest possible standard. Full compliance with the system formed part of the terms and conditions of every civil servant, and that failure to comply “could be the subject of disciplinary action”.
“Failure to co-operate with PMDS will have a significant negative impact on your members. It will, under the integrated PMDS system, jeopardise future increments, including any increments to be paid in 2009, as well as eligibility to participate in any promotion competitions or receive allowances for higher duties.
“Furthermore, it is management’s intention to treat a refusal to complete a role profile for 2009 as failure to carry out the full duties of the grade and will, in the first instance, debar your members from being paid an increment in 2009 ,” it said.
In a letter to the department last week, CPSU general secretary Blair Horan said it was “a bit rich” for it to take issue with the non-co-operation with the PMDS system when it had introduced unilateral pay cuts and indicated it intended to breach the pay terms of the Towards 2016 national agreement.
“It is also quite provocative to issue threats to withhold increments when the talks process is still on-going and this union has observed a moratorium on further action during these talks.”
