Time off for Christmas shopping in public service.

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baldyman27

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Having spoken to someone today who is in the public service (not sure if I'm allowed to name the relevant service) it turns out that they are entitled, whether officially or not, to a half day paid in order to do their Christmas shopping. This despite having weekends completely free.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not wholly against the public sector but, being in the private sector I was always glad to be allowed a few hours off unpaid in order to do stuff that couldn't be done at weekends. In the current climate I think this is a bit rich though. This is quite a large part of the public sector too so the monies involved would not be insignificant.
 
Re: Time off for shopping in public service.

Must be during the times when the phones aren't answered!
 
Re: Time off for shopping in public service.

baldyman27 said:
.....(not sure if I'm allowed to name the relevant service) ....
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Why not name the branch of the public or civil service involved? I think this would only be fair to the thousands of employees in the public sector, public service and civil service who do not enjoy this perk.

Is it a Dublin thing?
 
Re: Time off for shopping in public service.

I wonder do they get paid 'banking time' too.
 
Don't want to specify which exact department it is as I'm friendly with this person but its a part of Cork City Council, who, as far as I'm aware, are cutting back on temp staff also.
 
baldyman27 said:
Having spoken to someone today who is in the public service (not sure if I'm allowed to name the relevant service) it turns out that they are entitled, whether officially or not, to a half day paid in order to do their Christmas shopping. This despite having weekends completely free.
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I can confirm this is in place in my workplace too and it's official. If it's any consolation employees must claim it and I can't imagine too many do (I never have). I've also heard of employees being quietly reprimanded for claiming it by some managers who feel it is all a bit ridiculous.

I guess it varies from place to place and I agree it should be abolished but there are probably bigger and better fights to be picking with the public sector unions.
 
I work in the public service and this is not a practice in my workplace. I do know somebody who works in a private hospital and they get this x-mas shopping half day though. I also agree that it should be abolished.
 
It is not official. It is up to local management to 'allow' credit of 3.5 hours to civil service staff at Christmas time as a gesture of appreciation for their work during the year. I don't get it but I give it to staff. Many private companies can reward staff with monetary bonuses at Christmas but no such mechanism exists in the CS.
 
I also work in public sector and although I've heard people talk about it , I don't think anyone I work with takes this. It is probably some un-official thing going back years.
Having said that, i was talking to someone that works in the pensions board recently and he said they get an extra day off a year because they don't use their monthly bank time anymore. If I understood him correctly, the half hour they got once a month was added up to give them a day off every year, now that their wages are paid electronically.
 
Re: Time off for shopping in public service.

rmelly said:
I wonder do they get paid 'banking time' too.
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YES!! Know someone in Public Service and they get 30 or 45mins added to their hours for "bank time", its not available anymore to new employees.
 
Welfarite said:
...or upset the unions who negotiated it yonks ago
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I thought they'd given this up with benchmarking...that was until I remembered how one sided the benchmarking process was. Wasn't it a union leader who referred to the process as an ATM machine handing out cash to all comers (in the public sector obviously)?
 
rmelly said:
I thought they'd given this up with benchmarking...that was until I remembered how one sided the benchmarking process was. Wasn't it a union leader who referred to the process as an ATM machine handing out cash to all comers (in the public sector obviously)?
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The unions 'gave up' nothing to get benchmarking. After all, it was meant to bring PS salaries into line with similar-type private sector jobs. It wasn't really a bargaining pay-talk scenario. Hence the ATM remark.
 
Caveat said:
If there's any truth whatsoever in this one...well...I dunno whether to laugh or cry.
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A credit of 3.5 hours per annum works out at about a minute per day. Putting this fact in terms of a 'half day off for Christmas shopping' is another way of saying that, I suppose.
 
We civil servants have listened about the big xmas bonuses paid to employees in private sector over the past 10 years. I've been a civil servant for the past 15 years and this half day shopping leave is the only thing that i ever get that resembles a bonus. Oh how the times have changed when people are beginning to cry about this little concession.

Apart from that I have witnessed school leavers over the last few years going into jobs (construction and others) and were paid in excess of what I was earning as a civil servant at the time. There was'nt much remarks passed on us when the times were good. One thing that should be remembered is that the majority of civil servants are Clerical /Executive Officer's and believe me we are not on this massive wage/bonuses that everyone is led to believe.
 
Give me a break. I work in the public sector and yes we got 3.5 hours off for Christmas shopping and yes I took it. Big deal. Last year I was working in the private sector and got a 5 grand bonus. I know which I'd prefer.
I think the Public Sector witch-hunt is getting a little out of hand during this downturn. Nobody gave a damn about the half day shopping when they were making lots of money themselves but now all of a sudden its an outrage. I have been in the Public sector for 4 months now and I can tell you it is a lot more stressful than the private. There are lots of us dealing with the most vulnurable and unruly in society and providing a service that goes largely un-noticed. I had a far handier number in my old private sector job but when offered this post could not turn it down given the current economic circumstances. I think people need to remember who caused this crisis - fat cat bankers and greedy developers who have left the country scarred with innumerable ugly, unrequired, half-built apartment blocks. Working people should be venting their anger at them and not each other. Public or private, we're all facing the same problems.
 
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