Query Re professional and technical grades civil service

JSPD

Hi all,

I'm just curious about potential implications in respect of my job within the civil service.

My grade is executive officer equivalent in terms of salary scale, but is deemed a technical grade. Therefore I have not been entitled to apply for mobility.

I have been in my role 6 years now. I applied and interviewed for the job based on my third level qualifications and previous work experience which at the time which were essential requirements for the job.

My department has been resistant to remote and blended working over the last couple of years, with the consequence being some staff have left and attracting new staff have has proved very difficult. As a result we are extremely understaffed at the moment. They have had a number of recruitment competitions over the past 18 months, with very little interest.

They have recently opened a new competion for positions equivalent to mine, but this time they do not require any previous experience or a specific third level qualification. Instead they are stating that on the job training will be provided.

What I'm curious about is should this position now be deemed a general grade as no specific qualifications or experience is required. While I do love where I work, the restrictions on blended working combined with having a long commute and having two small children at home, I have been actively looking and applying for jobs that have a shorter commute or can offer more remote working opportunities. Therfore if this is now deemed a general role I could apply for mobility which would be great.

I will raise with HR next week, but I'm curious to whether anyone thinks there's a possibility that this role should now be a general grade seeing that no prior experience or qualifications are required for the new people they are hoping to recruit.

Thanks in advance

Lauras5839

This new competition won't have any impact on your role or the contract you signed. You've said the roles are equivalent, but that implies that they aren't the same. You were hired to fill a specific technical grade and you can't just change that. Your contact and your pay scale are for a technical grade, you'll be listed as that on HRMS, counted as such in the departments numbers and workforce planning. What your talking about isn't something that happens, technical roles are specific in the civil service and they're not interchangable like you want them to be I'm afraid. And things like this are covered by DPER anyways, the department you're with wouldn't have autonomy to make such a change. I think your best bet if you want different conditions is to apply for a general grade completion instead.

Ted222

It seems odd that a job that doesn’t require particular qualifications or experience was classified as a technical grade.

That a competition for recruitment to that specific job continues to take place would suggest that it has distinct requirements that couldn’t be met from the general EO panel which you say is equivalent. Something doesn’t add up.

If the competition hasn’t produced any successful candidates and if there are no specialist skills required, I can’t understand why there wouldn’t be a push to fill vacancies with regular general service EOs. If they were, this would strengthen your case for a lateral move elsewhere.

JSPD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121907325#Comment_121907325

HI Laura. Thanks for your reply. I should have been clearer in my original post. When i said equivalent, I meant exact same i.e. the job title, duties, responsibilities etc are exactly the same, the only difference being that they no longer require the qualifications or experience necessary when i applied for the job a number of years ago. Obviously and understandably this is to try and widen the pool so they can hire more people. I had just hoped that if they felt those qualifications and experience are no longer necessary, that i may be able to get the benefits of mobility. But as you rightly say I did sign a contract and my best bet is probably to apply for an open competition.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121907989#Comment_121907989

Open competition is definitely your best short/medium term solution. Did you bring up the question of the technical/general grading with your union?