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FAS now Solais trying to get the 70 days holidays revoked

24

Comments

  • #32
    thebman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,001 ✭✭✭✭thebman


    Tora Bora wrote: »
    Speaking of holidays and all that mullarkey.

    Country is banjaxed. Need to get competitive. Cannot devalue currency to help that process.
    We could reduce the cost of labour by reducing and eliminating holidays.

    Cut bank holidays by 50% to start.
    This business of bank holidays is total crap, when there is work to be done and a country to be saved from extinction.

    Don't we already have less than the average public holidays?


  • #33
    Boulevardier
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,388 ✭✭✭Boulevardier


    Obviously these pre-retirement leave days were grossly extravagant and should never have been given. However, they were given, and like any piece of property, they cannot just be taken away again for nothing.

    The Fas/Solas staff need to be bought out, in much the same way as landowners in the way of a motorway need to be bought out. In both cases, rights have been acquired and in both cases, those who got them are entitled to negotiate.


  • #34
    Welease
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,834 ✭✭✭Welease


    Boulevardier wrote: »
    Obviously these pre-retirement leave days were grossly extravagant and should never have been given. However, they were given, and like any piece of property, they cannot just be taken away again for nothing.

    The Fas/Solas staff need to be brought out, in much the same way as landowners in the way of a motorway need to be bought out. In both cases, rights have been acquired and in both cases, those who got them need to be bought out.

    Really?

    I had put a large amount of my money into a private pension fund... and a % of that was just taken away.. I guess my cheque is in the post...

    Other folks (both PS and PrS) have sufferred pay cuts and loss of perks in this recession without being compensated.

    Why should FAS workers be compensated for the loss of these rediculous days?


  • #35
    OMD
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,458 ✭✭✭OMD


    bleg wrote: »
    How about the hundreds of millions that were spent by Irish people in the hospitality sector over the bank holiday weekend...
    Which would have just vanished into thin air if it wasn't spent on the Bank Holiday Weekend.


  • #36
    Boulevardier
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,388 ✭✭✭Boulevardier


    Welease, a % can and in their case should, be taken away. I am not talking about full compensation. I am referring to some partial measure of compensation which Siptu, in present circumstances, would probably have to agree to.


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  • #37
    OMD
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,458 ✭✭✭OMD


    Boulevardier wrote: »
    Welease, a % can and in their case should, be taken away. I am not talking about full compensation. I am referring to some partial measure of compensation which Siptu, in present circumstances, would probably have to agree to.

    But they didn't. They were offered compensation (we don't know how much) and SIPTU rejected it.
    From RTE website:
    FÁS management had previously offered to buy the workers out of their 'pre-retirement leave' scheme, but the suggested value was rejected by the unions


  • #38
    PCPhoto
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,584 ✭✭✭PCPhoto


    isn't it about time when the government gave a list of "perks" and then negotiated which ones should stay/go.

    in no other profession/sector have I ever heard of a pre-retirement on full pay like this - its an absolute disgrace.

    why not go back to when this was negotiated and try to see who was behind it - why was it agreed to and who agreed to it....and not just this all the other "perks" which when announced cause so much of a tizzy.

    why cant the unions/government sit down and list them all off (the perks) and then ask the unions to justify them, many of them are outdated and some of them are given because they are job specific (ie. gardai that work with dogs are given extra money to compensate them for lack of human contact or something like that - but sometimes when a garda moves from the dog division they keep the "benefit")
    heres a link to backup my claim of extra payments for dog handlers(because there are people out there who will say I'm making it up)
    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0528/1224297951588.html


  • #39
    Welease
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,834 ✭✭✭Welease


    Boulevardier wrote: »
    Welease, a % can and in their case should, be taken away. I am not talking about full compensation. I am referring to some partial measure of compensation which Siptu, in present circumstances, would probably have to agree to.

    Why should they be compensated?

    I'd be willing to bet there is nothing in their contracts about getting these extra bonus days.. It will be part of the rediculous culture of screw the system for as much as they can get.. Training funds swishing over to union bank accounts etc...

    Take the days back .. then if SIPTU etc want to push it.. bring out the contracts and claim back the pay for days previously used by FAS employees...


  • #40
    Nijmegen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,086 ✭✭✭Nijmegen


    I think a government with Labour in it, a party that takes a % of its funding directly from unions, is unlikely to get tough with unions.

    The advantage may be that they will quietly negotiate with them in the background. This will lead to less noise, but ultimately better terms and more of these outrageous (and I don't care if it's just one day more holiday a year) 'perks' that are the collective result of years and years of pandering to a cushy set who have grabbed at every increase they could manage and are now fighting to hang on to every one of them, no matter how stupid they look.

    If the government were to get tough, it should publish a list of every perk - as others have said - and then take on the PS unions to get rid of each and every one of them.

    Let's see PS workers go on strike for their extra holidays, banking time and so on. I'd say you'll find plenty of willing strike breakers among the €188 a week set.


  • #41
    RichardAnd
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,132 ✭✭✭RichardAnd


    Tora Bora wrote: »
    Speaking of holidays and all that mullarkey.

    Country is banjaxed. Need to get competitive. Cannot devalue currency to help that process.
    We could reduce the cost of labour by reducing and eliminating holidays.

    Cut bank holidays by 50% to start.
    This business of bank holidays is total crap, when there is work to be done and a country to be saved from extinction.


    Well considering you recently made this post over in the internship scheme...

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=73608619&postcount=148

    ...we can deduce that you are some manner of workaholic. Why don't you try working full time for no salary and no holidays and then you can let us know how you get on :rolleyes:


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  • #42
    hmmm
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,192 ✭✭✭✭hmmm


    The fairest solution for everyone concerned is to make sure all public sector employees can avail of this package. It's fair and equitable. (I'm joking).

    What was the point of rebranding FAS and keeping all the same staff? No really, what was the point? It generated a cost to the taxpayer to redo all the stationary and street signs etc, but other than that I don't know who is supposed to have benefited.


  • #43
    bonzos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 810 ✭✭✭bonzos


    So much for all the BS about croke park deal being a sucess:rolleyes:....sucess for who?


  • #44
    Sizzler
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,430 ✭✭✭Sizzler


    hmmm wrote: »
    The fairest solution for everyone concerned is to make sure all public sector employees can avail of this package. It's fair and equitable. (I'm joking).

    What was the point of rebranding FAS and keeping all the same staff? No really, what was the point? It generated a cost to the taxpayer to redo all the stationary and street signs etc, but other than that I don't know who is supposed to have benefited.
    The company who got the gig for the rebrand :eek::mad:
    bonzos wrote: »
    So much for all the BS about croke park deal being a sucess:rolleyes:....sucess for who?
    Hard to believe the IMF are taking the quarterly reports seriously. I honestly thought they would go through the place like a dose of salts but they just seem happy to take the repayments and let us sail further up sh*t creek :mad:

    The very fact the unions are contesting this sums up all that is wrong with the country. Banana republic.


  • #45
    Idbatterim
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,706 ✭✭✭✭Idbatterim


    listening to tonight on vincent browne, Dan O'brien Economics Editor, Irish times, saying we should have single labor contract in the country, saying how inherently unfair it is that one large sector of society can never be made redundant even if their job ceases to exist. everyone should have same rights and protections. as they are immune from redundancy, the only way we are bringing it down is by early retirement and hiring freeze which is very inefficient... give them same redundancy rights as the rest of us have. Saying how it is inherently inequitable and how we have different groups in society all with different degrees of rights.

    Very funny isnt it? all I ever here in Ireland is fairness and social solidarity! God I really wish they would turn off the money taps! Its revelations like these that really sometimes make me hate my country. I stopped watching the current affairs programmes months ago, now I know why!


  • #46
    Jaysoose
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,212 ✭✭✭Jaysoose


    hmmm wrote: »
    The fairest solution for everyone concerned is to make sure all public sector employees can avail of this package. It's fair and equitable. (I'm joking).

    What was the point of rebranding FAS and keeping all the same staff? No really, what was the point? It generated a cost to the taxpayer to redo all the stationary and street signs etc, but other than that I don't know who is supposed to have benefited.

    The point was to fool the people that this mess or an organisation had changed in some way, nothing more nothing less its fast becoming obvious that this new goverment is the same as the previous one.

    We are being taken for idiots by the goverment, the unions and the public sector workers its that simple.

    FAS is/was one of the worst run organisations in the state for gods sake but the staff inside face no repurcussions whatsoever for their pathetic performance.

    Its a disgrace.


  • #47
    fliball123
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,632 ✭✭✭fliball123


    sollar wrote: »
    If i read it correctly on the RTE Teletext it is an extra 44 days over the final 2 years. Therefore 22 days + Annual Leave 26 days = 48 days not 70.

    So its either more shoddy journalism by the Indo or just plain old lies.

    Sorry its 70 days a year in total .... Just to be sure its 48 extra days which I as a tax payer shouldnt be paying for


  • #48
    Geuze
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,283 ✭✭✭✭Geuze


    It's 26 days AL plus up to 44 days extra = 70 days max paid leave per annum in each of two years before retirement.


  • #49
    Nijmegen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,086 ✭✭✭Nijmegen


    Geuze wrote: »
    It's 26 days AL plus up to 44 days extra = 70 days max paid leave per annum in each of two years before retirement.
    I don't care if it's an extra half hour at lunch one day to go down and conduct some lump sum related banking. They shouldn't be getting anything extra.
    listening to tonight on vincent browne, Dan O'brien Economics Editor, Irish times, saying we should have single labor contract in the country, saying how inherently unfair it is that one large sector of society can never be made redundant even if their job ceases to exist. everyone should have same rights and protections. as they are immune from redundancy, the only way we are bringing it down is by early retirement and hiring freeze which is very inefficient... give them same redundancy rights as the rest of us have. Saying how it is inherently inequitable and how we have different groups in society all with different degrees of rights.

    Very funny isnt it? all I ever here in Ireland is fairness and social solidarity! God I really wish they would turn off the money taps! Its revelations like these that really sometimes make me hate my country. I stopped watching the current affairs programmes months ago, now I know why!

    I think he was trying to make a subtle point without getting his head ripped off by unions: The PS needs to have contracts that are more like private sector contracts, where you can be fired and there's none of these odd perks popping up.

    For Dan O'Brien to say that outright on the national airwaves would be heresy, of course.


  • #50
    Boulevardier
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,388 ✭✭✭Boulevardier


    As I have said already I think that those FAS leave days are outrageous. However, I also think that the more minor public service perks, such as the "cheque hour" and privilege days, have been seized on by people who seem to me to be out to bully the public service.

    Many employment sectors, public and private, have perks. It is easy to say that because the public sector have job security, all their perks should be rigorously scritinised and then abolished, but is this not all getting a bit obsessive? Why are people so exercised by this? Surely there are far more important issues out there?

    The answer, in my view, is that some people simply hate the public service and want to scapegoat it for what has gone wrong with the country. It is a nasty, mean-minded obsession and discussion boards like this bring it out a lot.


  • #51
    fliball123
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,632 ✭✭✭fliball123


    Boulevardier wrote: »
    As I have said already I think that those FAS leave days are outrageous. However, I also think that the more minor public service perks, such as the "cheque hour" and privilege days, have been seized on by people who seem to me to be out to bully the public service.

    Many employment sectors, public and private, have perks. It is easy to say that because the public sector have job security, all their perks should be rigorously scritinised and then abolished, but is this not all getting a bit obsessive? Why are people so exercised by this? Surely there are far more important issues out there?

    The answer, in my view, is that some people simply hate the public service and want to scapegoat it for what has gone wrong with the country. It is a nasty, mean-minded obsession and discussion boards like this bring it out a lot.


    Because we are borrowing 18 billion to keep the lights on in this country and for every Euro not saved through cutting sh1te like this out we the tax payer have to pay more tax or the less fortunate on the dole will have to take a cut to keep this perk in check


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  • #52
    Welease
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,834 ✭✭✭Welease


    Boulevardier wrote: »
    The answer, in my view, is that some people simply hate the public service and want to scapegoat it for what has gone wrong with the country. It is a nasty, mean-minded obsession and discussion boards like this bring it out a lot.

    Of course.... anyone questioning why an organisation that has failed so badly that its being closed down, while keeping all those staff employed and continuing to object to the removal of rediculous holiday perks has to be mean minded and nasty...

    Anyone who questions anything that is inherintely wrong should be shunned...

    That sort of lack of questioning has proven to be succesful with our regulation, banking, property and econonic outlook...


    .... or maybe not...

    /boggle


  • #53
    joolsveer
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,297 ✭✭✭joolsveer


    I have tried to search the web for SOLAS. www.solas.ie brings up this page http://yuriko.cs.tcd.ie/switch/ which is a Trinity College website.
    Solas
    Solas aims to target a particular group of children who are in isolation wards in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, providing a forum for collaboration and communication to the outside world. The Solas project will apply state-of-the-art technology to provide them with a richer means of interaction and communication with the outside world and to enhance a sense of presence and connectedness between these children and the familiar people, places, and things that might strengthen their psychological well-being and overall healing potential. The project will build on existing work at Trinity College Dublin and Media Lab Europe. The development will aim to create an online collaborative space where the children can create art works or stories and facilitate them sharing experiences while they are in isolation.


    Has anyone found a website for the new FÁS?


  • #54
    sollar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,007 ✭✭✭sollar


    Boulevardier wrote: »
    Many employment sectors, public and private, have perks. It is easy to say that because the public sector have job security, all their perks should be rigorously scritinised and then abolished, but is this not all getting a bit obsessive? Why are people so exercised by this? Surely there are far more important issues out there?.

    Amen

    There is a disproportionate focus on everything PS.


  • #55
    fliball123
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,632 ✭✭✭fliball123


    sollar wrote: »
    Amen

    There is a disproportionate focus on everything PS.

    Well as long as disproprtionate perks exist in the PS expect the focus to be the same


  • #56
    Boulevardier
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,388 ✭✭✭Boulevardier


    Are they really so disproportinate? I don't expect a bonus, or a paid-for golf weekend, and I certainly don't expect a 16k watch when I retire.


  • #57
    Jaysoose
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,212 ✭✭✭Jaysoose


    sollar wrote: »
    Amen

    There is a disproportionate focus on everything PS.


    So you think we shouldnt be drawing attention to scandalous misuse of public funds to acclimatise somebody to the horrors of retirement?

    Lets get it right people are being paid to DO NOTHING within an organisation that isnt even fit for purpose. I for one hope the focus stays on this sort of thing as for years it has gone unchecked to the point were the people availing of these "perks" see them as justifiable.

    There needs to be a complete clearout of this organisation instead of the usual rebranding and keep the same people doing the same things.

    But sure lets all just "move along, nothing to see here".


  • #58
    fliball123
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,632 ✭✭✭fliball123


    Boulevardier wrote: »
    Are they really so disproportinate? I don't expect a bonus, or a paid-for golf weekend, and I certainly don't expect a 16k watch when I retire.

    Well thats fair enough but a section of ps workers in fas/solas are looking to keep a disproporinate perk of having 70 days holidays for the last 2 years of their working life before retirement ..To me this is disproportionate and unacceptable.....If a private sector worker gets a golden handshake when they retire (banks being the obvious exception) then fair play to them as it doesnt cost the tax payer any money now does it.


  • #59
    gigino
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,350 ✭✭✭gigino


    The audacity and cheek of FAS workers - who have much better pay, perks + pensions than their counterparts elsewhere - is astonishing. Shame on the PS for allowing this to happen.


  • #60
    Welease
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,834 ✭✭✭Welease


    Boulevardier wrote: »
    Are they really so disproportinate? I don't expect a bonus, or a paid-for golf weekend, and I certainly don't expect a 16k watch when I retire.

    But you will come onto a thread about FAS staff getting rediculous holiday perks and call people who question it mean minded and nasty...

    Do you think they are an acceptable perk? and if so why.. and if not, then why are those who want to discuss the issue nasty and mean minded?


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  • #61
    sollar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,007 ✭✭✭sollar


    Jaysoose wrote: »
    So you think we shouldnt be drawing attention to scandalous misuse of public funds to acclimatise somebody to the horrors of retirement?

    No, not necessarily. In a general sense though its non stop on here and in some of the papers.


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