Sit In at the Passport Office

Sunny said:
But what if the E-Voting machines turn on us? Remember Terminator.
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Would they do a worse job than the current lot?

Besides which, I never understood the whole blasting with big guns things, Ctrl+Alt+Delete and the whole thing stops. Wouldn't have made for a great film I agree, but still I can't believe not one of them in 3 (+1) films even thought of giving it a go.
 
umop3p!sdn said:
http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/...passports-waiting-to-be-processed-450958.html


I wonder what they're planning?

People should be allowed to make their own passports until the issue subsides.
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These talks have been going on for the last week or so. Cowan asked the unions and employers to meet, so it's not a meeting arrnaged especially for he passport issue.

The unions and employers have been meeting since Christmas but not offically. I suspect they have decided on something (well health has anyway).

Oh thanks for the laugh on people making their own passports.
 
To be honest I think the government should outsource the passport production to Israel at least until the dispute is over... they seem to have made a few Irish passports recently...
 
I am disgusted at what I am hearing about the behavior of the staff at the passport office.

I think they hoped that the public would get angry at the government ,but in fact this hasn't happened and if anything the public are backing the government in facing down this sort of behavior ,The staff have scored an own goal..

This is not about private v public,because there is no comparison.
If staff behaved this way in the private sector,this debate would not be happening,because they would have been sacked.

There is absolutely no incentive for the staff to work normally as they never have and never will suffer the consequences.

I have worked in this environment and I saw the lazy, do as little as possible ,not answering phones,being rude to costumers ,taking advantage of every possible loophole,moaning about everything,getting away with so much it sickened me,so I left.

God help those who have to work in this environment,it is very dishearting for those who do want to do a decent days work,when all around you the place is full of militant dossers,and until the government make them suffer the consequences of their actions ,it will continue.
 
His Ministership is not impressed according to the RTE wireless news and there'll be wigs on the green and consequences after he talks to "management", whatever that is.
 
dept of finance has told staff in passport office they will not be paid if they don't do the dutes of their grades including rostered duties
 
YOBR said:
I think you will find that all civil servants have taken pay cuts....
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Yes, agreed, but, workers in the private sector in general are not working to rule, but, are getting on with their jobs.... If they are still in the jobs. I am not ranting against civil servants. I genuinely admire the work they do. However, if they had a risk of losing their jobs, they might he more inclined to take the medicine and work through this recession thankful that they had a job.
 
Giving that one has to pay €80 to get a passport (standard passport/standard service) I wonder why the Government does not outsource the service anyhow.

Why not create a cost-recovery agency that funds the service itself by the fees it charges for the passport (it works in Canada for example).

We could outsource the production of the passports to a larger European country, let’s say the German Bundesdruckerei for example. They already produce passports for other countries and have the experience in digital applications (fast application) and quality passport material.

All we than need is application centers that validate that application is actually entitled to an Irish passport, does the security checks and then transmits the passport data electronically to the passport production facility.

That center than operates by recovering the production cost and the service cost via the passport fee.

I’m not saying let private companies taking over, what I’m saying is reform this aspect of public service, work together with other governments and recover the cost for a professional service. It does not matter if the passport center is than staffed by public servants, contractors or agency workers as long as security and process are in place.
 
liaconn said:
You've obviously never heard of Employment Rights, the Unfair Dismissals Act or the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
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I'm (obviously) not an expert but I can't see how the DoFA could loose that case. If an employee fails to do their work, gets a warning, continues to fail and is fired, what is illegal about that?
 
markpb said:
I'm (obviously) not an expert but I can't see how the DoFA could loose that case. If an employee fails to do their work, gets a warning, continues to fail and is fired, what is illegal about that?
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Nothing illegal if they follow a process like this. Firing isn't an option as ee's are protected under the Industrial Relations Act when on industrial action. Docking pay is the logical option.
 
becky said:
Firing isn't an option as ee's are protected under the Industrial Relations Act when on industrial action.
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Is work-to-rule regarded as industrial action? If so they should have been docking pay ages ago.
 
shnaek said:
Is work-to-rule regarded as industrial action? If so they should have been docking pay ages ago.
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It is but you can't dock wages with a legitimate WTR because the employees are working to exact specifications of their contract of employment. In theory, therefore, they aren't in breach of the contract and aren't open to docking of wages or any form of action against them.

The only avenue would be if there is a specific link in the contract and pay to certain performance criteria and standards, say operating standards. These would set the specifics on the duties of certain roles and could be seen (depending on the specifics of the contracts) as part of their contract of employment.

However, if these don't exist and the duties have never been formalised, there is nothing illegal with the WTR and nothing that is a breach of contract.
 
shnaek said:
Is work-to-rule regarded as industrial action? If so they should have been docking pay ages ago.
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Perhaps if the Govt had initiated the current talks early in January we might not be in this place today....
 
Perhaps if the promised reforms and improvements in productivity in return for benchmarking were introduced, none of this would be happening.
 
Perhaps if the staff at the passport office were not as ignorant and rude to the people queuing ,the public may have some sympathy.

Also can anyone tell me what the position is for those who have applied for their passport through passport express, (where you are guaranteed to have it within ten days,and for that privilege you pay extra) and have not been able to get their passports?

Is this a breech of contract?

If so ,who is in breech of the contract?
Can the union or/and the government be sued for the loss of money people paid for flights /holidays etc?
 
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