Can the government be sued for not providing travel documents in a timely manner? Is it a right that citizens of Ireland should be issued passports?Can the union or/and the government be sued for the loss of money people paid for flights /holidays etc?
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?
How?Perhaps if the promised reforms and improvements in productivity in return for benchmarking were introduced, none of this would be happening.
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.
It really is a different world, high up there in the Public Sector.
It really is a different world, high up there in the Public Sector.
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?
If there were any cause for action it would be against the Passport Office, not the union. Who set up the express service? Did they introduce the systems to keep that promise? Or, did they just introduce it without any adjustment to terms and conditions of employment?
I've no idea if they introduced the correct systems and procedures, but you don't have to renegotiate employees T&Cs everytime you introduce a new process.
This doesn't justify the action, but I don't think poor written contracts of employment is the sole preserve of the public sector.
Why is it that custom and practice is accepted as de-facto part of an employee’s T&C’s when it comes to things that are of benefit to the employee (shift allowances, extra pay for bank holidays, top-up maternity pay etc) but custom and practice is not taken into account when it comes to things that employees don’t like (answering phones in hospitals and passport offices, doing yard supervision in schools etc)?
Why is it that custom and practice is accepted as de-facto part of an employee’s T&C’s when it comes to things that are of benefit to the employee (shift allowances, extra pay for bank holidays, top-up maternity pay etc) but custom and practice is not taken into account when it comes to things that employees don’t like (answering phones in hospitals and passport offices, doing yard supervision in schools etc)?
Why does it not cut both ways? If people have answered the phone as part of their job for the last 30 years how can they suddenly decide to stop doing it?
I don't think it's poorly written because it fails to mention that you're expected to answer your phone. That's just taking the **** and using official cover for it. I do lots of things in work that aren't in my contract, I don't think I'm doing my employer any favours, I'm just doing my job.
Private Sector Unions have also used work to rule practises in the past.
Really? I have a general vague contract without specifics and some operating procedures, but I know it doesn't actually specifiy 60% of what my job entails and that's a good "best practice" private sector employer. I can honestly say in all my years of work in the private sector, not one contract of employment and subsequent operating procedure has accurately or explicitly described my role.
This doesn't justify the action, but I don't think poor written contracts of employment is the sole preserve of the public sector.
Personally, I don't look at my contract - I'm the guy that does his job. The employees of the passport office must be the other guys.
Personally, I don't look at my contract - I'm the guy that does his job. The employees of the passport office must be the other guys.
How do you know you're doing your job, it you don't even know what's in your contract?
This is a very constructive rabbit hole. I dispair.