Passport workers paid double for their time off?

[shnaek]

But these guys caused the problem in the first place! The backlog was caused by industrial action. That would be like me coming in to work, dossing around, missing my deadline, and then getting a bonus for staying in late a few evenings to do work I should have gotten done already!
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for incentives - for real work done.

 

[VOR]

But these guys caused the problem in the first place!

Correct me if I am wrong but is this not a case of one office doing nothing and another putting in additional work? If so, the latter office (Cork) deserve the incentive. The former deserve to have pay docked.

From the article:
"The staff in Cork were much more courteous and much more flexible than the staff in [broken link removed] -- that is why the incentive was given," he said. Staff at the Cork passport office who worked at the Easter weekend were rostered from 8.30am to 3pm. "I am introducing some incentive to staff which might assist staff in leaving earlier than normal," said Mr Devine in the circulated email.

If the staff receiving the incentive were th ones who caused the delay I would have a different response. I say well done to those in Cork who gave up the Easter weekend to help with the backlog.

 

[mathepac]

I think the situation is ludicrous and the quotes from the interview (some reproduced below for their hilarity-inducing content) would make excellent material for a surreal "Yes, Minister" script.

The public service and its so-called managers need to get used to zero-sum budgeting and incentives. To extrapolate from what the interviewee (who should not have been giving interviews) said, the staff from the office who were much less courteous and much less flexible should have had their bonuses (incentive payments or whatever) reduced in order to fund the incentives paid to the “much more courteous and much more flexible“ staff in a different office.

There is no evidence that I have seen or heard that the staff in the Dublin office suffered any financial loss or had their holidays docked to balance the books. The die is cast - public servants can now be dis-courteous with their customers, inflexible in their working arrangements and will suffer no penalties or reprimands; anyone seen to be operating even slightly above this exceptionally low benchmark (remember benchmarking ?) will be paid bonuses and get extra time off.

Choice quotes :-

• “Ah jaysus, that's an internal email. You shouldn't have it,"
• "The staff in Cork were much more courteous and much more flexible than the staff in Dublin that is why the incentive was given," he said.
• "I'm not supposed to be giving interviews -- the reason for it is we were trying to catch up on the backlog,"
• "The work-to-rule created a bottle neck in the system and in this case the inclusion of incentives would be normal," said a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is responsible for the passport service.
• "The staff in Cork were much more courteous and much more flexible than the staff in Dublin that is why the incentive was given," he said.