As Gaeilge

Ref: E109/45/05

30th September 2005

Circular 16/2005: Agreement on incremental credit for previous service for entry levels at Services Officer or Services Attendant, or equivalent grades represented by the Federated Union of Government Employees (FUGE).

 

A Dhuine Uasail,

1. I am directed by the Minister for Finance to say that he has accepted the recommendations of General Council Report No. 1460 which provides for the granting of incremental credit for previous service to officers at Services Officer or Services Attendant or equivalent entry grades represented by the Federated Union of Government Employees (FUGE).

I am accordingly to convey sanction for the implementation of the provisions detailed below.

2. Details of the agreement:

[a] Experience

(i) The agreement is in respect of persons who have previously been employed in the public service in Ireland, within the meaning of Section 1 of the Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 (Appendix 1), or an equivalent body in the EU Member States [1] at the grade of Services Officer or Services Attendant or an equivalent grade. Although the following bodies are excluded under Schedule 1 of the Act (Appendix 2), solely for the purposes of this Circular, they should be counted as Public Service bodies; An Post, Telecom Eireann, Coillte Teo, and the Irish Aviation Authority.


(ii) Experience in the public service in Ireland or in the EU member states will have to be relevant to the work of the grade.

(iii) Incremental credit will not be given for service on former age points that have been eliminated from the pay scales or where employees have benefited from age related pay.

Qualifying service means actual service less two years to take account of former age points that have been eliminated from the incremental scale (if any).

Please refer to Appendix 3 for further information.

(iv) Incremental credit will be granted on the following basis:

·        One increment per year for the first five years of qualifying service

·        Six increments for an employee with previous qualifying service of six years to less than ten years

·        Seven increments for an employee with ten or more years qualifying service.

(v) An officer’s incremental date may be adjusted to take account of part of a year’s service where officers have less than 6 years qualifying service. For example, an officer with qualifying service of two years and three months would be given two increments on appointment. This officer would receive their next annual increment after nine months satisfactory service when the combination of qualifying and actual service would reach one year. This does not affect probation or contract year regulations.

(vi) Credit will not be given for service which has already been taken into account for the purpose of setting starting pay.

[b] Verification

(i) Persons claiming credit for previous service must give comprehensive and accurate information to their employing department in support of their claim. Credit for previous service will not be awarded until the employing Department has satisfactorily completed such measures as it considers appropriate to authenticate the claim.

(ii) Departments should endeavour to complete enquiries in three months.

[c] Application

(i) In general application for incremental credit will be considered only at the point of entry to the Civil Service. The onus will be on the candidate to claim. New recruits will be informed of this arrangement in the letter of offer. However, applications for incremental credit from serving staff, who have previous experience prior to their current appointment, and who were recruited in the grades of Services Officer or Services Attendant or an equivalent grade represented by FUGE, will be considered.

(ii) The Agreement is effective from 1 October 2002.

(iii) Former civil servants currently employed in the grade of Services Officer or Services Attendant or an equivalent entry grade represented by FUGE will also get credit from 1 October 2002.

. (iv) Staff with prior qualifying service promoted between 1 May 2000 and 30 September 2002 inclusive may have their notional starting pay on promotion recalculated to take account of credit on the basis set out in 2 (a)(iv). Actual pay should only be revised with effect from 1 October 2002.

[d] Temporary service

For the purpose of incremental progression, temporary officers in the Services Officer and Services Attendant grades should be treated in the same way as permanent officers. The ceiling on incremental progression for temporary staff was removed with effect from 14 July, 2003 (letter E107/7/76 of 16th December 2004 to Personnel Officers and General Council Report 1301 refers).

[e] Overtime

Payment in respect of overtime rendered on or subsequent to 1 October 2002 by officers of grades to which this circular applies should be calculated by reference to pay as increased from 1 October 2002.

(f) Seniority

The agreement will not affect existing seniority arrangements. While seniority is a matter for Heads of Departments, local arrangements in relation to seniority will continue to apply.

(g) Queries

Any queries regarding the contents of this circular should be referred in writing to Careers and Appointments Section, Department of Finance, 73-79 Lower Mount Street, Dublin 2, or emailed to careersandappointments@finance.gov.ie. Personal enquiries from individual officers should be referred to the officer’s own Personnel Section.

Mise le meas,

John O’Connell

Assistant Secretary

APPENDIX 1

Extract from Section 1 of the Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004

“public service body” means-

(a) the Civil Service,

(b) the Garda Siochana,

(c) the Permanent Defence Force,

(d) a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2001,

(e) a health board,

(f) a vocational education committee established under section 7 of the Vocational

Education Act 1930,

(g) a body, other than a body set out in Schedule 1-

(i) established by or under any enactment (other than the Companies Acts 1963

to 2003), or

(ii) established under the Companies Acts 1963 to 2003 in pursuance of powers

conferred by or under another enactment, and financed wholly or partly by

means of moneys provided, or loans made or guaranteed, by a Minister of the

Government,

(h) any body, other than a body set out in Schedule 1, wholly or partly funded out of

moneys provided by the Oireachtas or from the Central Fund or the growing produce

of that Fund and in respect of which a public service pension scheme exists or applies

or may be made,

(i) any subsidiary of a body to which paragraph (d), (e) or (g) relates and in respect of

which a public service pension scheme exists or applies or may be made.


APPENDIX 2

[No. 7] Public Service Superannuation [2004.]

(Miscellaneous Provisions) Act

2004

Section 1. SCHEDULE 1

BODIES TO WHICH THE DEFINITION OF “PUBLIC SERVICE BODY” DOES

NOT APPLY

  1. A body which has an occupational pension scheme or arrangement that is made or may be made under the agreement between the Government of Ireland and the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland establishing Implementation Bodies done at Dublin 8 March 1999.
  1. Aer Lingus Group p.l.c.
  1. Aer Rianta c.p.t.
  1. Arramara Teoranta.
  1. Bord Gáis Éireann.
  1. Bord na gCon.
  1. Bord na Móna.
  1. Córas Iompair Éireann.
  1. Coillte Teoranta.
  1. Electricity Supply Board.
  1. A Harbour authority within the meaning of the Harbours Act 1946 or company to which section 7 of the Harbours Act 1996 relates.
  1. Horse Racing Ireland.
  1. Irish National Stud Company Limited.
  1. Irish Aviation Authority.
  1. An Post.
  1. An Post National Lottery Company.
  1. Radio Telefis Éireann.
  1. Railway Procurement Agency.
  1. Voluntary Health Insurance Board.
  1. A subsidiary of any body to which this Schedule relates, including a subsidiary of any subsidiary.

APPENDIX 3

1. Age Points/Qualifying service

As two age points were removed from the Services Officer or Services Attendant pay scale, it was agreed, between the official and staff sides, that previous service is reduced by two years to determine an officer’s qualifying service. This means that officers with 8 years previous service will subtract 2 years to give a total of 6 years qualifying service.

2. Application

(Note examples below based on claims processed between 1st October 2004 and 30th September 2005)

2.1 Paragraph 2 (a) (iv) of the circular states:

“Incremental credit will be granted on the following basis:

·         One increment per year for the first five years of qualifying service

·         Six increments for an employee with qualifying service of six years to less than ten years

·         Seven increments for an employee with ten or more years qualifying service.”

2.2 Treatment of a new entrant:

Step 1: Identify the current point on the pay scale

Step 2: Calculate incremental credit

Step 3: Add the result of step 2 to step1 above

2.3 The following is an example of dealing with a new entrant at Services Officer or Services Attendant level with 8 years previous service:

Step 1: current point on scale is the starting point

Step 2: 8 years actual service less 2 years is 6 years qualifying service

Step 3: 6 years plus starting point means the officer starts on 7th point.

2.4 Increments are granted in addition to the officer’s current point on the pay scale which in this case is the starting point. This means that this officer is entitled to start on the 7th point of the current pay scale.

2.5 Treatment of existing civil servants:

Former civil servants currently employed will get credit from the date of the agreement i.e. 1 October 2002.

2.6 The following is an example of dealing with an existing civil servant who, on 1 October 2002 was a Services Officer or Services Attendant with 8 years previous service:

Step 1: current point on increment scale is 5th point (3rd point in October 2002)

Step 2: 8 years less 2 years is 6 years qualifying service

Step 3: 6 years plus 3rd point means the officer should be placed on the 9th point of the scale since 1st October 2002 and arrears should be paid accordingly.

3. Calculating an officer’s incremental date to take account of part of a year’s service

Paragraph 2 [a](v) of the circular states: “An officer’s incremental date may be adjusted to take account of part of a year’s service where officers have less than 6 years qualifying service.”

3.1 The following is an example of dealing with a new entrant who has less than 6 years previous qualifying service, and having his/her incremental date adjusted:

New entrant starting date:

  

1 July 2005 (1st point)

Qualifying service:

  

2 years and 3 months

Point on pay scale:

  

3rd point (starting pay plus 2 increments)

New incremental date:

  

1 April 2006 (deduct 3 months from the officer’ normal 12 month increment date)

3.2 The following is an example of dealing with an existing civil servant who has less than 6 years previous qualifying service, and having his/her incremental date adjusted from 1 October 2002:

Start date

  

1 October 2002 (1st point)

Qualifying service:

  

2 years and 3 months

Point on pay scale:

  

3rd point (starting pay plus 2 increments)

New incremental date:

  

1 July 2003 (deduct 3 months from the officer’s normal 12 month increment date)

4. Equivalent Grades

The following is the agreement regarding equivalent grades:

4.1 Departments should check with the officer’s previous employer, whether in Ireland or in an EU Member State, for indication of whether the previous service is relevant to the grades of Services Officer or Services Attendant (salary scales and role profile forms will be of assistance in determining whether previous experience is relevant). The Department of Finance will make a final decision in any new case as to whether previous service is relevant or not

5. Relevant bodies

Departments should refer to Appendix 1 of the circular to ensure that previous experience was in a public service non-commercial body. Departments should contact the appropriate body to confirm this. The Department of Finance should then be consulted in these cases before a final decision is made. For the purpose of granting incremental credit, the following Public Service Bodies should be considered; An Post, Telecom Eireann, Coillte Teo and the Irish Aviation Authority.

6. Arrears

Paragraph 2 c (ii) and (iii) of the circular states: “The agreement is effective from 1 October 2002. Former civil servants currently employed will get credit from 1 October 2002”.

7. Marriage Gratuity

Officers who received a marriage gratuity are eligible to apply for incremental credit for previous year’s service.

8. Qualifying service can count towards Long Service Increments

An employee is entitled to access LSI 1 after 3 years on the max and LSI 2 after a further 3 years.

If an officer is on or near the maximum of the scale, their qualifying year’s service can count towards Long Service Increments.


[1] Employment in the public service in EFTA countries and the EU Commission will be considered as relevant in this regard.


 
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