Rules governing civil service starting pay, including starting pay on promotion, have been updated following talks with Fórsa. The deal brings welcome changes to starting pay, including the abolition of ‘marking time.’

A new circular also clarifies the position in relation to officers who are promoted through open competition, who will now be treated as if they had been promoted by an internal or interdepartmental process. This means they will no longer have to mark time.

This is particularly important where the lower ends of the promoted scale are within the lower grade pay range, for example for CO and EO grades.

The circular also records agreement that public servants will not have to start a new position on the first point of the civil service scale if they are offered a job in the civil service at an analogous grade.

Adjustments due under the new agreement are currently being processed, and any delays are due to volume.

Read DPER Circular 08/2019 HERE.