THE GOVERNMENT has warned staff at the Passport Office they face having pay docked if they do not carry out their specified duties.
Calling for a suspension of the current industrial action, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said pay would be stopped immediately if the protest did not end.
“A letter has been issued to the union, the Civil Public and Services Union , basically saying that staff who refuse to carry out a duty of their grade, including a duty for which they were rostered, will not be paid for the period when they refuse to carry it out even if they are carrying out other duties,” Mr Martin told reporters in Brussels last night.
“Fundamentally, management has to organise a service, and has to roster and has to decide the tasks that need to be prioritised and undertaken. And we need be very clear in terms of the dividing line between a work-to-rule and core duties and responsibilities, and the core duties and responsibilities have to fulfilled.”
The Minister’s comments came after a second day of chaotic and sometimes angry scenes at the Passport Office on Molesworth Street where long queues formed of people seeking to get passports.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday a backlog of 40,000 passport applications had built up as a result of industrial action by members of the CPSU over the last two months.
It said the turnaround time for the processing of applications had increased from 10 working days to between 18 and 20 working days.
Mr Martin said it was a matter of great regret that the respect earned by the Passport Office had been placed in jeopardy “because of the misery that has been heaped on people” by the protest.
“We’ve had all these cases communicated to us in terms of really terrible situations of people losing jobs, people travelling for business reasons and for holidays as well; in many cases you’re talking about youngsters going on trips, either teams or whatever, so there’s a whole varying range of disappointment which has caused a lot of anger.”
Mr Martin said talks under way with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions were the proper forum for a resolution of the dispute.
He played down the prospect that moves to discipline staff would lead to an escalation of the industrial action. “The Government has responded in a proactive way with the leadership of congress in terms of the talks process that is under way. Surely that provides the vehicle for dealing with all of the issues in the widest possible way.”
There was some confusion last night over the precise wording of the memo sent to staff in the Passport Office. While one version stated that staff who refused to carry out a duty of their grade “will not be paid for the period when they refuse to carry it out, even if they are carrying out other duties” the version which the CPSU said it received said: “With effect from Tuesday, 23 March 2010, staff in the Passport Offices who refuse to attend the public counter when rostered so to do, may not be paid for the period when they refuse to carry out this duty, even if they are available to carry out other duties”. This version also stressed that a period when a civil servant refuses to carry out their duties shall be considered to be a period of unauthorised absence “for which they will not be paid remuneration”.
Last night CPSU general secretary Blair Horan said if members had pay docked there would be a strike. The union would not call off the industrial action but had indicated to management in the Department of Foreign Affairs it was prepared to work with it to see if some of the pressures on the Passport Office could be relieved.