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Acting up in the civil service

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  • 13-10-2023 2:46pm
    #1
    AMEMCM
    Registered Users Posts: 6 ✭


    I have a colleague who has been acting up as EO for almost two years now. The last time it got approved it had to be signed off by the ASec and this will bring them over the 2 year mark in November. At what point will they be made permanent in the role? Is it at 2 years or 3 years? I've been trying to find a relevant circular or policy but can't seem to locate one.

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    #2
    Yeah Right
    Registered Users Posts: 507 ✭✭✭Yeah Right


    The whole point of acting up is to fulfill a role temporarily while the official holder of that role is unable to fulfill it.....e.g. long term sick leave, maternity leave, Shorter Working Year Leave etc. It's specifically not for posts that are or are expected to be permanent, therefore there should be no guarantee that the person acting up WILL become permanent.

    The trouble is that getting sanction for staff acting up is easier than getting sanction for new staff, so certain places (HSE in particular) were putting people into acting up roles for years. This is unfair on the people involved, so it was specifically banned in about 2011 or 12, and anyone acting up for longer than X months was to be regularised, increments paid and this was to be the new policy. Can't remember exactly, but I think it was 2 years.

    I can't find the exact circular on it but haven't got much time at the moment, I'll look later if I get a chance. I worked in a place where someone had been doing EO work as a CO to cover someone on sick leave. That person eventually took a case against the organisation so was out for an extended period of time. When they eventually returned, the acting up person was needed elsewhere, so they just shifted her to that unit, then again some time later and she was essentially the 'floater' who covered for any EOs on leave. This went on for 6+ years until the HSE stuff came to light and the process was banned (rightly so).

    HR tried to demote her back to her original CO salary from 6 years previously, not awarding her any increments even though she'd been on the same EO acting salary for those 6 years without increments also. She refused and said she was taking them to the labour court. HR got legal advice and very, very quickly climbed down form their previous position and gave her everything......permanent EO post, all 6 increments plus backdated payment for the missing increments.



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