Civil servants offered €37,500 to take three-year career break

THE GOVERNMENT has offered civil servants a special incentive payment of up to €12,500 annually if they take a three-year career break.

It has also proposed a new scheme to allow staff in the civil service to take special unpaid leave for up to 13 weeks.

These new initiatives, in addition to the planned new early retirement scheme, for staff in the wider public service, are aimed at reducing the number of personnel on the State payroll.

In proposals discussed with trade unions yesterday, the Department of Finance said that successful applicants for a career break under the new scheme who worked full-time would be paid an incentive payment of a third of gross basic pay to a maximum of €12,500, per year, payable quarterly in arrears, for each year of the three-year period.

The Department of Finance proposal states: “A career break may be allowed for family reasons, other domestic purposes (eg care of a relative), travel abroad, self-employment and educational purposes. Educational purposes may be deemed to encompass certain training courses which include a practical training element for which there is a nominal payment/grant made to the student (eg training as a nurse or as a solicitor).”

“Career breaks are not available for taking up paid employment in the State or for educational purposes where the student/trainee is in an employment relationship with the training body and is in receipt of a normal salary/wage, the department’s proposal states.

Meanwhile, the country’s largest public sector trade union has argued that the Government’s proposed new early retirement scheme for the public service “may not be legally sound”.

The proposed new scheme will allow an eligible civil or public servant over the age of 50 to retire without “actuarial deduction” of pension entitlements.

Ten per cent of the relevant lump sum will be paid immediately with the balance paid later at the normal retirement age of 60 or 65. However, for those who apply to retire now, the full lump sum will not be taxed even if the Government introduces such a measure in the future.

The union, Impact, said the proposal was a “recipe for public service chaos,” which, in its present form, would force thousands of public servants, mostly on modest incomes, to gamble on their retirement income.

Impact general secretary Peter McLoone said the scheme, as currently drafted, would inevitably lead to conflict.

“The uncertainty over future taxation means staff must either gamble that pension lump sums will be taxed in future, in which case they are effectively forced to take early retirement and forego up to 10 years of pay. Or they must gamble that their pension won’t be taxed, and possibly end up with a much-reduced retirement income if the Minister decides to impose a tax,” he said.