Civil Service Mileage Rate

“just doing their job”?

So pulling double shifts to cover for sick colleagues wearing double PPE the whole time is “just doing their job”?

Staying away from their families for months on end to avoid bringing the deadly virus home to their parents, their children, their partners is “just doing their job”?

Literally dying or ending up with Long COVID for just doing their jobs is “just doing their job”?

So I’m not sure if you managed to work out why those elective surgeries were cancelled? It wasn’t because the team spent five minutes on a TikTok video. It was because the staff and beds were reassigned to deal with very sick people, so that we never had to turn anyone away from Intensive Care for lack of resources, as happened in many other countries.

You’re welcome, btw.

You have literally no idea what work those teachers, museum staff and others were doing over that period. It is pure idle speculation on your part, spreading BS rumours to suit some idealogical agenda.

The pandemic that never was! Would be hilarious if it wasn't so insulting to the families of those that died and those that continue to struggle with the effects of long Covid and to the 800-odd people still in hospital today. But meybe they're all just a figment of my imagination.

I've been hearing guff like this for 20 years on various bulletin boards from a small core of bitter and twisted moaners. Maybe it's just one bitter and twisted moaner, who knows. It seems that the public haven't 'woken up' in those 20 years, including the sharpest recession and the deepest cuts to public expenditure in living memory, but sure I guess that's the public fault, right? They're not all as clever as you.

I don't know if you get your ideas from watching 1970s British movies or what, but the CS you describe bears no relationship to the reality that many of us have been living for years. It is just a figment of your twisted imagination.

My current management challenge is the bunch of staff I’ve inherited that have carried over leave entitlements of between 20 and 70 days, because they’ve been too busy to take leave. Just one of the bunch had leave requests declined. The others didn’t look for leave to ensure that their jobs got done. I’m working to make sure they take their entitled leave and start working down the backlog. That’s the reality of public service today.

Give us a laugh and tell us where you got your 'every idea' of those who did nothing for 18 months from?

You can be sure of one thing - no-one in the civil service would have come up with such a dumb idea as expecting staff to pay for their own work travel expenses, punishing those staff who happen to travel on safety inspections or quality audits or revenue audits or building control inspections or whatever. Silly, bitter, and twisted nonsense.

Ireland comes out around the middle of the EU tables for public service staffing, so your ‘grossly over staffed’ claim is just another figment of your bitter and twisted imagination. Did a civil servant run off with your missus or what?

Yorky i have an example for you of a family member who works for the Public Service, due to her particular specialty she was sent to the other end of the country to sit on an interview panel. These interviews lasted 2 weeks. She had to travel about 400 KM round trip and stay in hotel 8 nights over the 2 weeks. Under your harsh plan she would have been working for nearly nothing by the time these costs were paid for out of her wages for those 2 weeks.

Public Servant here. I do a lot of KM's per year as part of my role. Probably 10-12,000. I was on a site yesterday 400km's or so round trip.

I've told my boss I won't be doing it again until either rates go up or diesel goes down.

If public servants start doing this then a lot of critical tasks and projects will be delayed resulting in bigger losses and costs for the tax payer. I'm not throwing the toys out of the pram or anything and understand that the money has to come from somewhere but it's just mad at the moment trying to keep diesel in the car.

Jaysus. You're going to be rightly pissed off when the new pay agreement is published in a few months. Couldn't come at a better time for public servants with inflation through the roof. I'd have thought a few months ago we'd get another 3-4 percent over 3 years. I think it'll be a bit higher now and we will get a decent bump straight away too.

I agree with you on one thing, the travel rates are too high, they make it so people are delighted to get out on the road. It should be a bit less so it just feels like a reimbursement rather than a real boon. There is no doubt it is being abused by some staff.

Did you ever apply for a job in the public service Yorky.

You haven't been following what's been happening with inflation then?

Oooh, there's an interesting move in your position. Now we can be graced with payment for fuel (though it would be impossible to link fuel usage to any particular journey). Should we pretend that we're grateful now with your largesse, your majesty?

Where exactly is it 'massively abused'? Some factual evidence would be great.

No, I mean paying the debts of banks and property developers, your beloved 'real economy' according to yourself. That's where the pension reserve fund, according to yourself. Maybe you got too distracted obsessing about CS mileage to actually notice what happened?

I'm not sure if you understand employee contracts either. Suggesting that employees should contribute the full cost of their pension somewhat negates the value of that aspect of their remuneration. You know that no employer can single-handedly decide to change the terms of an existing employment contract, I'm sure, so yet again, it is another silly, completely impractical suggestion.