THE recruitment embargo in the public sector has been strongly criticised by the Association of Higher Civil Servants. Its general secretary, Mr Sean O'Riordan, said that the embargo flies in the face of long term objectives to reform the Civil Service such as the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI).
The AHCS is the third Civil Service union to condemn the embargo in the past week. Mr O'Riordan said it will be advising members not to accept unreasonable redistribution of work that might result from the embargo.
He does not envisage any industrial action at this stage but members were being advised to contact the association if they found workloads increasing. The embargo made it difficult for unions to persuade their members to accept new developments like SMI, especially as union leaders were not being consulted on proposed changes he said.