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Irish Times
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Bringing staff back to office more often will hurt productivity, union conference hears
Moves to bring staff back to government department offices for additional days a week would hit productivity and make staff recruitment more challenging, delegates to the Association of Higher and Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS) have been told. The union's conference in Portlaoise instructed its leadership to resist any change to current remote and blended working policies across the public service which currently range from one day a week on-site to five depending on a person's role and place of employment. Proposing the motion, Tom Morrin, who works at the Department of Housing and commutes from Portlaoise to the Custom House in Dublin, said staff there are required to come in three days a week and allowed to work from home the other two, a balance he believes works well. 'If you are commuting like me then you have to leave at a particular time to get the train, whereas if I'm at home I'm not in a rush to get the Luas to the train and I tend to work later.' READ MORE The roughly 90-minute trip to and from work significantly impacts his day both personally and professionally, he said. 'In the mornings I can generally drop my four-year-old to the creche so I get to do more bonding with my family then I'm going to get more work done, so it's good for me and for my employer.' He said the staff in the department all come in on Thursdays in order to facilitate meetings and promote work interactions and socialising but after that they were free to choose the days on which they went to the office. There is growing concern, however, that there will be moves to bring people in more, something he believes would have negative impacts not just in terms of productivity but also recruitment. He pointed to a University of Galway survey which found 92 per cent of people would be influenced by blended working policies when choosing where to work as evidence of the potential to negatively impact the Civil Service's ability to attract and keep staff. The AHCPS's deputy general secretary, Paul Malone, said there was already evidence that departments and public sector organisations that require more days in the office were finding it more difficult to recruit. He said when it came to internal transfers, the figures showed it was 'a pivotal factor' in where people decided to go 'and that's likely also to be the case to in relation to external recruitment'. The Department of Social Protection was repeatedly criticised by the union's officials for the way it handled a recent attempt to double the number of days some staff had to come into work. Many of the department's staff working in public-facing roles are on-site full-time but about 850 are allowed come to the office just one day a week and it had been suggested this would be doubled to two. AHCPS general secretary Ciaran Rohan said the issue was one of a number between unions and the department that would now be discussed at the Workplace Relations Commission . He said it was open to any department or public-sector organisation to consider amending their current policies but that they needed to consult on any proposed changes and 'consultation does not mean sending a PDF five minutes before they announce the decision'. 'They've a lot of stuff coming up in relation to that and feel it can be best done when people are together. So they've made those arguments, and a couple of others will probably talk to us but others have done reviews and decided to leave things as they are. We were in last week with the CSO where they have three days at home and two in the office and they are going to keep that.'
Irish Independent
09-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Senior civil servants may be set for 2.5pc pay boost under special clause in public sector wage deal
The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants has lodged two pay claims on behalf of its 4,000 members. They still must be agreed at talks with officials at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. In an update to members, the union said there may be productivity or reform requirements in return. An emergency motion on the pay claims for principal officers who work in the civil service is set to be discussed by delegates at the union's annual conference in Portlaoise today. The motion asks delegates to endorse two local bargaining claims submitted by the union. The first is a claim to double a 1pc pay increase under an old deal, as well as improvements to the pay scales of assistant principal and principal officer grades. Their wages rise in increments each year, or over a number of years. The latest civil service circular shows an assistant principal officer's pay starts at €80,668 and rises in increments to €100,530. Pay for a principal officer on a higher scale starts at €112,974, and increases gradually to €139,320 when they reach the top of the payscale. In an update to members on May 6 , the union said two 'significant' claims are a part of efforts to secure fair, strategic, and impactful improvements to pay and progression structures. It said a claim submitted to double a 1pc increase under a Programme for Competitiveness and Work deal to 2pc is due to growth in its members' responsibilities. The second claim for assistant principal and principal officer grades aims to address 'pay progression bottlenecks, retention challenges and evolving job demands'. This claim would involve the removal of the first wage increment on the pay scales for both grades – so they would start on higher pay. It would also reduce a three year wait for a final increment to one year, and there would be a 2.5pc increase in the maximum increment on both payscales, and a higher pay scale. The union said this measure aimed to retain leadership talent and support career progression. ADVERTISEMENT Ciaran Rohan, general secretary of the AHCPS, said the pay claims are modest and balanced. Meanwhile, the conference will focus on new AI guidelines for the public sector that were unveiled this week. The union has warned that the position of human decision making must be safeguarded. Motions put forward by delegates will call for greater management of AI in the workplace and raise concerns about its impact on jobs and accountability. Delegates will also call on the union to strongly defend blended working practices. 'We welcome the publication by government this week of guidelines for the use of AI in the public sector,' said Mr Rohan. 'It's something our members have been looking for. ' He said AI is already playing a positive role in the civil and public sector, but it is critical that there continues to be strong guidelines and guidance in place. 'Not only are there issues of confidentiality, bias and transparency to consider, but we would also have concerns about any reliance on algorithms to inform decision making,' he said.
RTÉ News
08-05-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Senior public servants to highlight concerns over AI
Senior civil servants will highlight concerns over the use of artificial intelligence in the public service at the annual conference of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS). Delegates will gather in Portlaoise today to discuss a range of motions put forward by the union's more than 4,000 managers across 50 branches in the civil service, and in the commercial and non-commercial State sectors. Issues to be debated include AI, carers' leave, career progression, and flexible and remote working. Artificial intelligence A number of resolutions put forward by delegates will highlight the need for greater management of AI in the workplace and the protection of human decision-making in the public and civil services. One motion calls for the civil and public service to ensure "that human decision-making and performance assessment are retained as exclusively reserved functions of human actors". Members will also call for a multi-union approach to AI and for the AHCPS to seek commitments from relevant departments to review the governance structure and, more specifically, the operations of AI within departments that have introduced its operation. Yesterday, the Government published new guidelines for responsible AI usage by the public sector. "Like in many workplaces, AI is already playing a positive role in the civil and public sector, but as the technology develops it's critical that there continues to be strong guidelines and guidance in place," said AHCPS General Secretary Ciaran Rohan. "Not only are there issues of confidentiality, bias and transparency to consider, but we would also have concerns about any reliance on 'algorithms' to inform decision making," he added. Remote working The protection of blended working and work from home policies will also be discussed at the AHCPS conference. Delegates will raise concerns about reductions in blended working and working from home, which is "often driven by ideology rather than information or data". Members will call on the association to strongly defend blended working practices in the public and civil services. The conference will also hear that any changes to the Civil Service Blended Working Policy Framework must be subject to full consultation and agreement with civil service unions.
