Extensive public service reforms including a removal of the ban on outsourcing "core work" have been agreed by unions in talks on a new national partnership deal. Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent, reports.
Greater open recruitment to senior grades in the Civil Service and more flexible working arrangements in the health sector are included in the new agreement.
The marathon talks on a successor to Sustaining Progress are expected to conclude this weekend, with the exception of farming issues, which the parties hope to resolve next week.
It has already been agreed that the pay element of the deal will see workers get a 10 per cent increase in four phases over 27 months.
To qualify for the pay rises, public servants are required to co-operate with a continued programme of modernisation and flexibility.
An agreement in this area was finalised late on Thursday night. It includes a clause giving the Government increased freedom to outsource public service work.
The issue came to the fore last March when Minister for Transport Martin Cullen moved to outsource 40,000 driving tests to cut waiting times.
He was initially prevented from doing so under a provision in Sustaining Progress which said only work that was not part of the "core work" of public servants could be outsourced.
Driver testers agreed to the outsourcing plan this week on the basis of a formula proposed by the Labour Relations Commission.
As a result of the controversy, the reference to "core work" has been dropped under the terms of the planned new partnership deal.
It will recognise that in some situations public service work can be carried out "more effectively or efficiently, or both", by contracting it out to the private sector.
"In exceptional situations involving temporary pressures or peaks, or in order to avoid excessive delays in the delivery of services, management may at its discretion have the work undertaken on this basis," the agreement will state.
Unions have also agreed to allow limited open recruitment to certain senior Civil Service posts which, to date, have been filled on a promotional basis only.
This is a controversial issue within the Civil Service, with many staff strongly opposed to what they see as a closing off of promotional opportunities. The new agreement will acknowledge, however, that greater use of open recruitment is "essential" if the Civil Service is to "attract staff with the wide range of skills and experience needed in modern public administration".
The proportion of executive officer grades filled through open recruitment is to remain at the existing level of 50 per cent.
But for the first time a proportion of vacancies at principal officer, assistant principal and higher executive officer level will be filled through open competition.
A percentage of equivalent professional and technical posts also will be filled in this manner.
A key element of the health sector reforms will result in some workers, likely to include radiographers and medical laboratory staff, working outside regular office hours as part of their normal duty.
While no particular staff categories are mentioned in the agreement, it states that "there is a need to move from the traditional nine-to-five 'office hours'-based service to an extended span of the working day across all disciplines in certain areas".
Negotiations on how this change is to take effect are to be concluded by the end of March 2007.
Talks between the Government and the social partners on outstanding issues, including pensions, employment standards and the social and economic agenda are to resume this afternoon.
The Irish Farmers' Association, which rejoined the talks on Thursday following a two-month withdrawal over the nitrates issue, said the talks had failed to make substantial progress for the farming sector.
IFA president Pádraig Walshe said proper Government funding for various farm schemes remained a core issue.