no cuts in citizens information service

viztopia

This thread may turn into public v private sector but that is not the purpose of it. The purpose is to highlight something which not many people may be aware of. Staff in the citizens information Service are paid on the civil service pay scale - think its tied to the hse. They also get the same pension payments. However they have never had to take the pension levy or any other cut. Why is that? That seems totally unfair?

RichardAnd

You'll need to provide a source to start any serious discussion or else this thread will, as you predict, turn into the usual puerile nonsense. If what you say is true however, the only theory I might offer is that it's a deliberate move to promote disunity and I'm only half joking when I say that

Slydice

viztopia wrote: »

This thread may turn into public v private sector but that is not the purpose of it.

followed by

viztopia wrote: »

That seems totally unfair?

:rolleyes:

Here, lemme fix your post:

This thread is public v private sector and that is the purpose of it.

Given that lack of information has screwed up people in the country so much, then I reckon cutbacks in an information service would be a bad idea.

I don't know why they wouldn't have been subject to the public service levies. I think you have been badly informed though as everyone in the country is now subject to a pension levy regardless of public or private sector. What evidence do you have that they are subject to no pension levy at all?

later12

I am only guessing, but part of the reason why their budget may not have decreased could be because (i) because of the fact that MABS has come under their umbrella and (ii) the increased demand for the services of both Citizens' Information Centres and MABS.

As regards staff costs, first I think it's worth pointing out that their 2010 annual report states that of 272 staff (192 whole time equivalent jobs), 190 (104 whole time equivalent jobs) workers are on employment schemes. This would help explain the relatively low wage bill of €5.6m on salaries in 2010.

It's also worth mentioning that over 1,000 workers are volunteers.

However, the public sector pensions levy does apply to employees of non commercial state bodies like Citizens Information service, and their 2010 annual report states that "€288,270 was deducted from staff by way of pension levy and was paid over to the Department of Social Protection."

http://www.citizensinformationboard.ie/about/downloads/annual_report2010.pdf

Dirk Gently

I'd be very surprised if later12 wasn't correct. I always thought they were volunteers or on work placement gigs. Any time I went in I often got wrong or conflicting information, most of the time they just opened their own website and read a paragraph off the screen and then pondered its meaning before giving me their best summary of an english passage. Genuinely surprised a lot of them are actually civil servants (or is it civil service pay grades?) They must keep those people in the back offices.

viztopia

I am on the board of one of the citizens info services. Some one from head office/ CIB is also on the board. I have brought this up at board meetings in the past and gave been told it doesn't apply. Thanks for the link to the annual report. will down load it and see. Before I do I wonder does it say if the contribution made was voluntarily made or mandatory. And yes a lot of people ate voluntary and part time but in each one there is a well paid manager who also gets generous mileage. As so fat as mabs are concerned o think there is a bit of apprehension about this as ultimately there will be meregers of the 2 services and this may not suit everyone.

viztopia

Quick one in relation to the link - looking at it on my phone and can't see it all but it seems to be for CIB and not cis. Does the €200k pension levy referred to by above posting refer to CIB or cis?

Geuze

Slydice,

Only PS workers pay the pension levy, not private sector workers.

Slydice

Geuze wrote: »

Slydice,

Only PS workers pay the pension levy, not private sector workers.

OH YES HE IS....

er I mean, oh yes they do:
http://www.irishlife.ie/uploadedFiles/Corporate_Business/Resources_and_Tools/PDF/GovernmentPensionLevy.pdf

later12

viztopia wrote: »

Quick one in relation to the link - looking at it on my phone and can't see it all but it seems to be for CIB and not cis. Does the €200k pension levy referred to by above posting refer to CIB or cis?

Isn't every CIS under the remit and the direct administration of the CIB?

K-9

later12 wrote: »

As regards staff costs, first I think it's worth pointing out that their 2010 annual report states that of 272 staff (192 whole time equivalent jobs), 190 (104 whole time equivalent jobs) workers are on employment schemes. This would help explain the relatively low wage bill of €5.6m on salaries in 2010.

It's also worth mentioning that over 1,000 workers are volunteers.

However, the public sector pensions levy does apply to employees of non commercial state bodies like Citizens Information service, and their 2010 annual report states that "€288,270 was deducted from staff by way of pension levy and was paid over to the Department of Social Protection."

http://www.citizensinformationboard.ie/about/downloads/annual_report2010.pdf

That was my understanding after taking a look at getting into the area.

Makes sense, of the 272 jobs over 2/3rd's are CE schemes and part time, which explains the whole time job reference, probably all the 190 jobs are under it.

82 full time staff gives an average of nearly 70k a year but that is presuming all the wage costs are for the full time jobs, but I've nothing to presume that on whatsoever.

Slydice wrote: »

OH YES HE IS....

er I mean, oh yes they do:
http://www.irishlife.ie/uploadedFiles/Corporate_Business/Resources_and_Tools/PDF/GovernmentPensionLevy.pdf

I think we all know what the poster meant.

Slydice

K-9 wrote: »

I think we all know what the poster meant.

Yep, sure do, cos the poster wrote it:

viztopia wrote: »

or any other cut

Geuze

Slydice,

There is a confusion here. PS workers pay a pension levy on their income, as well as their regular pension contributions. This levy is known as the PRD. They pay a per cent of their wage each week.

What you then refer to is the more recent annual levy on the value of all pension funds. Anybody with a pension fund now pays I think 0.6 per cent per year of the asset value in the fund.

I hope that clears it up.

Geuze

Returning to the original point, many workers in the semi-states do not pay the PRD pension levy, so I'm not surprised that workers in State agencies don't pay it.

My apologies, Later12 confirms above that these staff do in fact pay the PRD pension levy.

Jesus Shaves

Citizens Information staff = uninformed and a waste of a pay packet, they just look up their own website when a person needs information