IMPACT was challenging a bizarre HSE plan to outsource payroll for the new Children and Families Agency (CFA) in the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) yesderday (Thursday), after management admitted its proposal would cost the cash-strapped public health service €250,000 a year. IMPACT says the work can be done by existing staff at “little or no additional cost.”

IMPACT criticised this week’s budget approach for taking yet more cash out of the economy instead of introducing a serious stimulus to create jobs and consumer confidence to boost incomes and exchequer funds. But the union said it was positive to see ministers acknowledge public servants’ huge contribution to Ireland’s deficit reduction.

An historic banner from IMPACT’s Municipal Employees division is among the exhibits in an important display of trade union banners, which opened in the National Museum of Ireland earlier this month.

The end of the two-tier public service pay system, introduced when lower pay scales for new entrants were introduced at the beginning of 2011, will be announced soon with the publication of new unified pay scales.

The new scales will see post-2011 entrants ascend to pre-2011 scale points after two years, or less in some cases. As a result, most staff recruited after January 2011 will be earning more than their current scale allows once they reach their third scale point.

An official circular will soon issue on the calculation of cash deductions for public servants at the top of their scale who prefer to lose cash rather than incur a temporary loss of leave under the Haddington Road agreement. Negotiations on how the calculation will be done, which have been underway for some time, were near conclusion as this bulletin went to press.