Civil servants told to spend more time in the office - Irish Times - Mod warning #526

As the manager of an (albeit) small team - 6 Clerical Officers, I have learned that give and take goes a helluva long way in the Civil Service. At least twice a year, I will give my staff an ‘off you go’ half day. Meaning I wll sign off on an authorised absence for a half day. No big deal, but greatly appreciated by my team & I reckon I have recouped far more in goodwill than I ever would have by insisting that every half day is accounted for. I’m lucky I don’t have any piss takers in my team & they sure appreciate the gesture.

PMDS updates 3 times a year and writing some reports really isn’t going to fill the time required for a proper regular WFH arrangement.

The reality is that if you have any kind of public facing role like a public counter then you cannot have a WFH arrangement. It’s be like saying people who work on tills at Dunnes should have some kind of WFH, they can’t. That role cannot be fulfilled remotely.

And for Departments where there are a mix of policy staff who can easily WFH and customer facing roles the WFH arrangements are always going to cause some kinds of issues.

We've established this is nonsense and the "reasons" senior managers have could be addressed in a more nuance way if there was a desire to do so.

So really I don't blame them, we expect this from them, I blame the unions and we really REALLY have to hound them on this. They are not serving their members well on this. It's a disgrace and utterly unacceptable.

People have no business complaining if they haven't engaged with the union strongly on this issue.

Every member who has a problem on this has to complain strongly to the union or don't waste your time giving out to others, because you've basically allowed this to happen by not speaking up and doing your bit.

In my opinion Unions in civil or public sector are utterly different to private sector.

It is. A company cannot ban employees from joining a union but it doesn't have to recognise or negotiate with a union either.

I dunno what 26 counties has to do with it. Or private companies.

A private company can just ignore the union. Even in the public sector they can simply avoid the union as there is often not the numbers in an smaller public agency to have any influence.

That's very different to the civil service where there are still large numbers in unions which have huge influence and it's ingrained and embedded in the working culture of the civil services.

Anyone how hasn't experienced a highly unionized environment really hasn't a notion of how deeply it effects working practices.

30 years ago unions would never have allowed AI into public sector. These days not even a whimper from them. They wouldn't have engaged in a discussion about RTO mandates. They'd have simply said no. That's have fought every word. I'm not saying it's right or wrong. Just that unions do not have the influence they used to.

So while people are being run out the door of DFIN with the 3 day mandate starting next week. Forsa's big plan is to try and get people to sign a pledge, that they'll commit to signing a petition, through an overly complicated Web application of some sort. The Union will then bring that into the pay negotiations in the summer. People are, RIGHT NOW, being forced to take mobility, being forced to take unpaid leave, being forced to resign in some cases because of these changes across the civil service. This is the best they can do?! Absolutely pathetic, these people need a wake up call. They are letting their members down further than they already have!

Unions are the members as multiple posts have already pointed out. The issue is people nowadays take too much sh*t from their employers and are not willing to fight for things (WFH, Better pay and so on). Not much would be willing to go on General Strike. If people were willing to stand up for themselves more, unions would function better.

In the 1920's the British Miners brought their country to their knees. Thats the sort of power and willingness to strike that works.

Not whatever this petty 1% pay rises and asking to WFH as if your a child asking for a day of in school. Its a joke.

When most employers are offering the same sh*tty conditions thats not always an option though. Add to that if you need the money which nearly everyone does...

Its why real change via legistlation and changing the way business is generally done is needed.

https://forsatradeunion.newsweaver.com/designtest/wl480p0fxqe4yrlyh6xro1?lang=en&a=1&p=66349946&t=30063860