THE trade union Impact is threatening to stop co operating with the Government's civil service reform programme unless the "closed shop" system for appointing senior civil servants is scrapped.
The union, with 28,000 members, represents about 5,500 professional staff in the civil service, including accountants, architects and engineers prevented from applying for senior positions by Department of Finance policy.
The national secretary of impact's civil service division, Mr Paddy Keating, has written to all Dail members seeking support in ending the "closed shop" system.
He says accountants cannot rise above the professional accountant grade to become principal officers or assistant secretaries, even when their expertise is central to the functioning of an office.
The maximum grade of professional accountants in the civil service is slightly below that of assistant principal officer. An accountant scale runs from £28,832 to £33,358, while the principal officer scale runs from £33,820 to £39,582. Only civil servants on a principal officer grade can apply for higher posts as assistant secretary level or above.
Principal officers are organised in the 1,800 strong Association of Higher Civil Servants.
In his letter Mr Keating says: "While Impact is fully supportive of the Government's promotion of reform in the Public Service via the Strategic Management Initiative, it is equally keen that the closed shop should end and that its members should be afforded every opportunity to participate in this initiative in as effective a way as possible. Promotion in the civil service should be on merit from amongst all of the suitably qualified and experienced staff."