The Unions representing Semi-State workers seem to feel that they have derailed decentralisation plans with the Labour Court ruling preventing the explicit use of promotion as a means to encourage workers to move out of Dublin. While the semi-state sector’s use of the idea was blunt and unsubtle, in the long run, the ruling is just a stall – there are other ways to use promotion to move people
Readers outside Ireland may have missed the governments plan to ‘decentralise’ state and semi-state offices out of Dublin, usually to towns in marginal constituencies, and often into offices rented, it seems in some cases, from property developers known to be party supporters. So far, the main development is that large signs have appeared in provincial towns promising that the Department of X will soon be moving here, creating new service jobs in the town. It isn’t decentralisation at all, because all the functions will remain in one place, and that place may often be less convenient to reach for meetings. A large part of the Department of the Marine is located in Killybegs, a fishing port in Donegal which has no air or rail links to anywhere.
Semi-State bodies began to try to use willingness to relocate out of Dublin as a criteria for internal promotion, and the Labour Court has now ruled that they cannot do this, but must assess applicants for promotion on the basis of ability and experience. That is fair enough – it was surprising that the Human Resources managers in the state sector thought they would ever get away with that trick anyway.
However, the ruling merely stops the explicit use of the criteria in promotion interviews. Semi-State employees can be interviewed on their merits for promotions, and told they are eligible for promotion, and placed on a panel for promotion, all by the book, based on experience and suitability. Then HR will circulate a memo to the promotion panel saying something like “Due to organisational expansion, we have a vacancy for a Senior X in Section Y. Section Y is located in (insert name of provincial town here).” When none of the ‘stay in Dublin’ folks opt to take it up, the job will be advertised in the press, and an external candidate who meets the specification will be appointed.
This may create as many problems as it solves. It would create a mechanism to allow staff to move between semi-state bodies, removing a blockage which exists at present. It would allow people from outside the state sector to move into state jobs in mid-career, which might bring in a helpful infusion of private sector experience. It would also, of course, result in some jobs going to people who were barely up to the paper requirements, but not really able to cope with the position. It might also lead to bad feeling between the new staff down the country and the old hands passed over in the Dublin office, with files taking weeks rather than days to be acted on. Either way, the show will trickle on, the big signs will still stay up, empty office space in provincial towns will continue to be rented and Sean Citizen will keep paying for it all.
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