The civil service group of unions is preparing a referral back to the Civil Service Arbitration Board regarding flexitime accrual for blended workers.

The unions had previously sought the reintroduction of full flexitime accrual for blended workers but were prepared to contemplate the reintroduction on a pilot basis initially. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) disagreed however, seeking instead to have a number of pilots running concurrently to allow for better outcome measurement.

The Arbitration Board ruled that two pilots could be used to measure the impact of full versus limited flexitime accrual, but when the pilot scheme evaluation was published, DPER did not endorse it as the model to be used across the civil service.

Despite noting no operational issues stemming from areas that piloted full flexitime accrual, DPER chose to instead to allow Departments to choose between full and partial flexitime accrual for their staff, in a decision described as “nonsense” by Fórsa official Seán Carabini. 

“DPER sought an expanded pilot phase to allow them to have better data in order to better inform their final decision. They got that. And they clearly got the data they needed because their evaluation of the pilot phases did not reference any difficulties encountered from Departments that allowed full flexitime accrual. They are duty bound to endorse this. They got what they wanted on the shape of the pilot,” he explained. 

On foot of this, Fórsa, alongside other civil service unions are now preparing a submission to the Arbitration Board.

“This is an insult to the arbitration process, not to then make a selection based on their published evaluation. We are therefore preparing a submission to the Arbitration Board seeking their intervention to compel DPER to see the process through,” said Seán.

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