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Revenue staff get paid to eat Xmas dinner!

24

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 26 nhojegan


    Jaysoose wrote: »
    So then why cant they do it after five on their own time?

    Its a non story but lets call it what it is, a free afternoon off that they will get paid for even though they are boozing it up.


    The work will still get done, they will just have to work harder before and after it.

    Stopping this would do nothing to save the economy which they didnt ruin, and maybe kill off the last bit of goodwill left among their staff. A great way to turn a country around. I vote for you :rolleyes:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    nhojegan wrote: »
    The staff are paying for it themselves
    They're getting paid to attend, private sector can't afford to pay staff to attend parties, I've never heard of that happening, even during the boom it was done outside of work hours. The cost of paying people to attend a party is going to be fairly high, probably much higher than putting out some finger food and getting a round in.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,166 ✭✭✭Fr_Dougal


    donalg1 wrote: »
    They are spending their own money on parties for themselves arent they? :confused:

    No, they can expense costs and get a full reimbursement because it's happening during working hours. If it happened outside of working hours they would not be able to expense it.


  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,269 Mod ✭✭✭✭Chips Lovell


    Every private sector employer I've had has done the same. The only difference is most would pay for your lunch too.


  • Registered Users Posts: 26 nhojegan


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    No, they can expense costs and get a full reimbursement because it's happening during working hours. If it happened outside of working hours they would not be able to expense it.


    But thats not happening is it!


    or do you just not want to see this because it doesnt suit your agenda


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,513 ✭✭✭donalg1


    ScumLord wrote: »
    They're getting paid to attend, private sector can't afford to pay staff to attend parties, I've never heard of that happening, even during the boom it was done outside of work hours. The cost of paying people to attend a party is going to be fairly high, probably much higher than putting out some finger food and getting a round in.

    But arent they paid a salary and not hourly so technically no matter what time they have the party they will be getting paid?

    Every company I have worked for have usually given us a half day or the last few hours off on the day we close up before Xmas would think it to be standard practice. Generally the management let the staff go and cover the office for a couple of hours before closing up.


  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,269 Mod ✭✭✭✭Chips Lovell


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    No, they can expense costs and get a full reimbursement because it's happening during working hours. If it happened outside of working hours they would not be able to expense it.

    Incorrect.
    They're not allowed do this.


  • Registered Users Posts: 827 ✭✭✭Cian92


    ScumLord wrote: »
    I don't know, I'd be a bit annoyed with this. Indigenous Irish companies can't afford anything like this, Christmas parties are basically just everyone meeting in the pub as companies don't have the money to be putting on parties and paying the staff to attend. The Irish government and local authorities are in the same boat but don't seem to realise it. We have to carefully monitor every cent spent and do everything we can to keep the show on the road but the Irish government just don't have that mentality they seem so blahzay about the position they're in. One minute they're telling us they're going to turn off lights because they don't have the money the next they're spending money on unessentials and parties for themselves.

    There's no solidarity between public and private sectors, their comfort levels while everyone else is suffering during our economic depression is infuriating and their performance and efficiency is nowhere near as good as the private sector.

    I work in the private sector at the end of the year we will go out for a meal paid for by the company followed by a big piss up also paid for by the company. A coach will be hired to bring people home, and all paid for by the company.

    My mother has worked in the public sector all her life. She will have to pay for her Christmas party as she has done all her life. She doesn't get any bonus, unlike myself in the private sector. We get brought away to do paint balling and call it "team building" naturally this is paid for by the company. My mother in the public sector never gets this luxury.

    Where she works they have never had the Christmas party during work hours, but I can't see why people would complain that the revenue would be allowed have a Christmas party held during work hours.

    Many companies have huge "social" budgets (where I work they struggle to spend it each year) there is nothing like that in the Public Sector, stop begrudging people a day off.

    EDIT: I nearly forgot that we always get a half day in the run up to Christmas as a thank you for our work done throughout the year.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    how is that fair?
    Why does it have to be fair?

    If Revenue management decide that giving some of the staff a few hours off as a thank you gesture for their work during the year is a good idea then I don't see the problem with it.

    Lots of companies will be doing something for their staff this Christmas. If a company can't afford to (or couldn't be seen to) pay for the Christmas party, it seems like a good idea to give the staff the time rather than the money instead.
    Let the managers manage.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,775 ✭✭✭Death and Taxes


    ScumLord wrote: »
    They're getting paid to attend, private sector can't afford to pay staff to attend parties, I've never heard of that happening, even during the boom it was done outside of work hours. The cost of paying people to attend a party is going to be fairly high, probably much higher than putting out some finger food and getting a round in.
    I worked for several companies which arranged Christmas Lunch parties that were on company time, it certainly was not unusal and still happens in some places. Also used to happen in some companies on the friday of the start of summer holidays too.
    Lets not make a big deal out of this, in the scheme of things its nothing to get worked up about!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,753 ✭✭✭davet82


    HUMBUG! :p


  • Registered Users Posts: 26 nhojegan


    donalg1 wrote: »
    But arent they paid a salary and not hourly so technically no matter what time they have the party they will be getting paid?

    Every company I have worked for have usually given us a half day or the last few hours off on the day we close up before Xmas would think it to be standard practice. Generally the management let the staff go and cover the office for a couple of hours before closing up.


    Exactly its a non story. One of the greatest achievments this current ( and previos) governments and media have achieved is turning the public against the public service. You would swear some of them are the devil incarnate


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,754 ✭✭✭Odysseus


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    No, they can expense costs and get a full reimbursement because it's happening during working hours. If it happened outside of working hours they would not be able to expense it.

    Don't be taking sh!te, come prove to us all exactly how this happens.


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


    nhojegan wrote: »
    The work will still get done, they will just have to work harder before and after it.

    Stopping this would do nothing to save the economy which they didnt ruin, and maybe kill off the last bit of goodwill left among their staff. A great way to turn a country around. I vote for you :rolleyes:

    Sure whatever you think.. i never said it should be stopped so fair play for not being able to read and understand plain english.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 702 ✭✭✭goodie2shoes


    another embarrassing example of public sector feeding off it's private sector host.

    the money involved is pittance, but the principle of paying staff to do something that should be done outside work hours is galling to most hard-pressed taxpayers.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 26 nhojegan


    Jaysoose wrote: »
    Sure whatever you think.. i never said it should be stopped so fair play for not being able to read and understand plain english.


    Cheers, Good man


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,327 ✭✭✭Madam_X


    dvpower wrote: »
    What the hell are you on about?
    He is making stuff up. It is inevitable on these threads.


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


    nhojegan wrote: »
    Cheers, Good man


    Good lad be sure to take your tinfoil hat off when you clock off to lodge your check at 4 bells on friday.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,166 ✭✭✭Fr_Dougal


    Incorrect.
    They're not allowed do this.

    They are.
    Odysseus wrote: »
    Don't be taking sh!te, come prove to us all exactly how this happens.

    You're talking sh!te.
    Reimbursement by employer by way of flat-rate allowances or vouched expenses

    Where an employee performs the duties of his/her employment whilst temporarily away from his/her normal place of work or is working abroad on a foreign assignment, allowable subsistence expenses can be reimbursed tax free on the basis of either -

    acceptable flat-rate allowances [see (a) below]; or
    actual expenses which have been vouched with receipts
    [see (b) below].

    And that's from www.revenue.ie


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,753 ✭✭✭davet82


    I bet there will be more complaints in this thread vs. a 1.1 billion (some of it) of tax payers money to pay for bankers pensions thread

    makes ye wonder...


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  • Registered Users Posts: 11,101 ✭✭✭✭martingriff


    iregk wrote: »
    In fairness this is a nothing story. I'm a private sector worker and in 3 companies that I've worked for coming up to xmas we always get a lunch followed by "unofficial" half day where lunch extends into beers which turns into an all night session. We don't and never have had to take a half day for it, it has been the companies way of saying thanks.

    What's the problem here?

    BE QUIET YOU its a bashing tread don'y you know.


  • Registered Users Posts: 260 ✭✭Franticfrank


    Its a nothing story. Just one begrudgery topic after the next, its really getting depressingly ridiculous at this stage. Especially the cocktail reception in the office which is probably for a birthday or retirement or something. I won't begrudge them a lunch and a bit of downtime. It can actually increase efficiency in a lot of cases.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10 rpe


    If you were away from the office for business purposes, you would be able to claim expenses. They are getting a few hours off to have a xmas lunch, they wouldn't be able to claim expenses for it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,385 ✭✭✭twinytwo


    i've been saying for quite some time that we live in a banana republic, but this sort of thing belongs to Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

    http://www.independent.ie/national-news/revenue-staff-get-paid-to-eat-christmas-lunch-3282204.html


    Our politicians get paid a lot more to do nothing.......:confused:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,205 ✭✭✭Benny_Cake


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »

    They are.



    You're talking sh!te.



    And that's from www.revenue.ie

    Unless you can explain how attending a Christmas lunch (which is voluntary) constitutes part of her duties of employment, I suggest you are making this up.


  • Registered Users Posts: 26 nhojegan


    davet82 wrote: »
    I bet there will be more complaints in this thread vs. a 1.1 billion (some of it) of tax payers money to pay for bankers pensions thread

    makes ye wonder...


    That's modern Ireland for yeah :cool:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,513 ✭✭✭donalg1


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    They are.



    You're talking sh!te.



    And that's from www.revenue.ie

    I would imagine that relates to working expenses like bringing a client for lunch or travel to meetings etc.. and not to a xmas party. If that was the case they would all be able to apply for expenses for their lunch everyday wouldnt they.

    That is how I would see it anyway, and I got to that conclusion using common sense if you want to know how to get there yourself. ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,019 ✭✭✭uch


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    He's right. Because the Xmas party/dinner is happening during working hours it will be paid for. All they have to do is hand in their receipts.

    Nice way to milk the system.

    You are talking through your hole now,

    21/25



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,166 ✭✭✭Fr_Dougal


    Benny_Cake wrote: »
    Unless you can explain how attending a Christmas lunch (which is voluntary) constitutes part of her duties of employment, I suggest you are making this up.

    From the article:
    REVENUE staff will be marked on-duty while they attend their office Christmas lunch in a popular Dublin restaurant.

    They're being marked as "on-duty", ergo they can claim expenses for it, ergo they can get fully reimbursed for it.
    uch wrote: »
    You are talking through your hole now,

    I quoted the legislation.:rolleyes:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    All they have to do is hand in their receipts.
    I think this is apt.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,754 ✭✭✭Odysseus


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    They are.



    You're talking sh!te.



    And that's from www.revenue.ie

    Yeah, there is a similar clause in the HSE too, if I was working away from my office, lets say I had to attend a congress down the country; I could look for expenses.

    If you think my manager would pass that for a X-Mass party, you are way off the scale; and the same would apply for the revenue. You Sir are trolling


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 702 ✭✭✭goodie2shoes


    dvpower wrote: »
    Why does it have to be fair?

    If Revenue management decide that giving some of the staff a few hours off as a thank you gesture for their work during the year is a good idea then I don't see the problem with it.

    Lots of companies will be doing something for their staff this Christmas. If a company can't afford to (or couldn't be seen to) pay for the Christmas party, it seems like a good idea to give the staff the time rather than the money instead.
    Let the managers manage.

    your response reveals the mentality of the public sector in this country. see the money they are wasting 'er i mean investing in "team building" is not their's.
    it is PUBLIC money, not private generated profits.
    we the public, ie Ireland inc. is bankrupt.
    i know these concepts, profit, wastage, bankruptcy will be difficult for you, but you must try.


  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,269 Mod ✭✭✭✭Chips Lovell


    You can't claim your Christmas lunch as a work expense. It doesn't count as a work duty, never has and it doesn't matter if you're on the clock or not. I think you know this too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    donalg1 wrote: »
    Every company I have worked for have usually given us a half day or the last few hours off on the day we close up before Xmas would think it to be standard practice.
    Yes, the last day where I work isn't really a working day, there's very little that has to be done but it wouldn't be a party, we can't really have alcohol on a factory floor. Any partying would have to be done outside the factory.
    Cian92 wrote: »
    I work in the private sector at the end of the year we will go out for a meal paid for by the company followed by a big piss up also paid for by the company. A coach will be hired to bring people home, and all paid for by the company.
    It's great that your company is doing so well it can afford to do that but I wouldn't say that's the norm with small to medium sized small Irish businesses. For many companies they're surviving on a week to week basis and employees know that. In our company everyone made sacrifices and it was across the board to be fair. One thing that was noticeable was that people wanted everyone to be cut and it was the thought of one or two people avoiding the same hardship they were in that caused more problems than having their own pay cut.

    This is something the government doesn't appreciate. People don't mind doing what's best for everyone, they don't mind taking the pay cuts as much as they mind seeing others be wasteful in the face of the economic problems that meant others have lost out.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,321 ✭✭✭splashthecash


    iregk wrote: »
    In fairness this is a nothing story. I'm a private sector worker and in 3 companies that I've worked for coming up to xmas we always get a lunch followed by "unofficial" half day where lunch extends into beers which turns into an all night session. We don't and never have had to take a half day for it, it has been the companies way of saying thanks.

    What's the problem here?

    Am I paying for your lunch?....No. That is the problem


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 81,220 ✭✭✭✭biko


    i've been saying for quite some time that we live in a banana republic, but this sort of thing belongs to Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
    I doubt that Mugabe's people get paid to eat Christmas dinner.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,019 ✭✭✭uch


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    From the article:



    They're being marked as "on-duty", ergo they can claim expenses for it, ergo they can get fully reimbursed for it.



    I quoted the legislation.:rolleyes:

    I work in that Revenue office and stand by the fact that you are talking through yer hole

    21/25



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,205 ✭✭✭Benny_Cake


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »

    From the article:



    They're being marked as "on-duty", ergo they can claim expenses for it, ergo they can get fully reimbursed for it.



    I quoted the legislation.:rolleyes:

    You quoted the legislation, but you didn't read it, "duties of employment" being the critical point. Wish you were right, I could expense my Friday morning coffee if it were true.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,166 ✭✭✭Fr_Dougal


    Odysseus wrote: »
    Yeah, there is a similar clause in the HSE too, if I was working away from my office, lets say I had to attend a congress down the country; I could look for expenses.

    If you think my manager would pass that for a X-Mass party, you are way off the scale; and the same would apply for the revenue. You Sir are trolling

    Would your manager allow you to have an Xmas party "on the clock"?

    The managers here have allowed the party/meal "on the clock", so it's counted as work; they are getting paid to attend. If they are getting paid to attend this function then they are entitled to apply for any expenses that they incur as set out as per IT54 on the Revenues own website.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 702 ✭✭✭goodie2shoes


    Its a nothing story. Just one begrudgery topic after the next, its really getting depressingly ridiculous at this stage. Especially the cocktail reception in the office which is probably for a birthday or retirement or something. I won't begrudge them a lunch and a bit of downtime. It can actually increase efficiency in a lot of cases.

    personally i think this story goes to the heart of the problems we have within the public sector, especially their cavalier attitude towards taxpayers money.

    in any private sector organisation i ever worked in, Xmas parties were organised outside work hours, and where the company was not performing they were curtailed or cancelled.


  • Registered Users Posts: 26 nhojegan


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    Would your manager allow you to have an Xmas party "on the clock"?

    The managers here have allowed the party/meal "on the clock", so it's counted as work; they are getting paid to attend. If they are getting paid to attend this function then they are entitled to apply for any expenses that they incur as set out as per IT54 on the Revenues own website.


    You are trying to fit legislation into a scenario that isnt going to happen.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    ScumLord wrote: »
    Yes, the last day where I work isn't really a working day, there's very little that has to be done but it wouldn't be a party, we can't really have alcohol on a factory floor. Any partying would have to be done outside the factory.

    The only cost to the employer of this christmas lunch is the few hours work that will be missed. How is it any different to your last day where you do very little for the entire day?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,579 ✭✭✭charlietheminxx


    We always take an unoffical half day for our Xmas lunch (private sector). We get someone in to cover the phones, and off we go. I really don't think this is a big deal - they're even paying for lunch themselves!

    Yeah so people who get a "free" half day are lucky, and I appreciate that, but we're a small office and we all put in unpaid overtime over the year so I think it balances out.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 132 ✭✭BigGrayKettle


    I'm just waiting for the next news story: "Civil Service pays for employees' toilet paper when taking a sh!te on duty".


  • Moderators, Politics Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 24,269 Mod ✭✭✭✭Chips Lovell


    By your own interpretation of the tax rules, then every employee, be they public or private, would be entitled to file expenses if a Christmas lunch takes place during the working day. That clearly doesn't happen now, does it?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,753 ✭✭✭davet82


    Fr_Dougal wrote: »
    The managers here have allowed the party/meal "on the clock", so it's counted as work; they are getting paid to attend. If they are getting paid to attend this function then they are entitled to apply for any expenses that they incur as set out as per IT54 on the Revenues own website.

    freedom of information act...

    if you are so concerned use it, see how many lunches have been claimed for


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    your response reveals the mentality of the public sector in this country.
    I'm private sector myself.
    see the money they are wasting 'er i mean investing in "team building" is not their's.
    The Revenue were voted money to run their Office at the start of the year and they have a management to decide how best to deploy those resources.

    You are free to complain about every little decision that the management make, but on this one, I think you'd have to accept that very few people agree with you.
    i know these concepts, profit, wastage, bankruptcy will be difficult for you, but you must try.
    You know very little.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 702 ✭✭✭goodie2shoes


    We always take an unoffical half day for our Xmas lunch (private sector). We get someone in to cover the phones, and off we go. I really don't think this is a big deal - they're even paying for lunch themselves!

    Yeah so people who get a "free" half day are lucky, and I appreciate that, but we're a small office and we all put in unpaid overtime over the year so I think it balances out.

    nonsense!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,230 ✭✭✭Solair


    While there are big wastes of public money going on, this clearly isn't one of them.

    It's totally counterproductive to start targeting people doing a normal Christmas lunch as part of work and getting everyone's backs up in the public sector, rather than actually going after some of the real cases of slashing the cash that go on / have gone on in the past.

    There are plenty of examples that could be chased up.

    I mean, for example, let's take a look at the tens of millions being slashed down the drain due to all the endless bickering over the location of the National Children's Hospital.

    Seriously, I mean where do you even start with that? It's just a complete fiasco and mind-boggling waste of public money.


    The damn thing should be built and ready to roll by now, instead we're looking at moving the site and slashing cash down the toilet.

    As much as I dread the annual tax bill, I have to say that dealing with Revenue is actually pretty easy and non-stressful (apart from the bit where you have to write the cheque) compared to a lot of agencies, particularly the HSE!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,579 ✭✭✭charlietheminxx


    nonsense!

    Why?


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