ianstone
07-27-2010, 08:24 PM
Civil servants 'treading water' with no job to do - because it's too expensive to make them redundant
By Becky Barrow (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Becky+Barrow)
Last updated at 12:38 AM on 28th July 2010
Comments (140) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298009/Civil-servants-job-expensive-make-redundant.html#comments)
Add to My Stories (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298009/Civil-servants-job-expensive-make-redundant.html)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/27/article-1298009-02DCBBBA00000578-88_233x423.jpg Warning: Francis Maude claims many civil servants are 'in limbo'
Many civil servants do not have a real job to do, the Cabinet Office minister admitted yesterday.
Francis Maude said he has uncovered a large number who literally have nothing to do at work all day – but are not removed because of the huge cost of making them redundant.
Speaking to MPs yesterday, he said: ‘[There are] people for whom there is actually no job. People who are kind of treading water.’
The cost to the state is huge, with the average senior civil servant earning nearly £80,000, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Mr Maude told the Public Administration-Committee that many departments have something called a ‘redeployment pool’.
They are aimed at workers who have finished a project, and must be helped to find another job to do – but it is a task which can take months.
Mr Maude blamed the rise of the ‘non-job’ among Britain’s 525,000 civil servants on the crippling cost of making them redundant.
Civil servants have one of the most lucrative redundancy deals in the country, a system which Labour tried but failed to scrap.
The terms of their redundancy deal is extraordinarily generous, with some long-serving civil servants eligible to receive about six years’ pay if they joined before 1987.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/28/article-1298009-0A979E2C000005DC-970_233x323.jpg
For example, a 46-year- old earning £24,000 who had been a civil servant for 25 years could enjoy a cash payment of about 6.2 years’ salary, or around £150,000.
By comparison, a private sector worker who earns the same money and has done the job for the same length of time would receive just £8,360 under statutory redundancy rules.
Within weeks of coming to power, the Government revealed plans to axe these generous redundancy rules. Under its proposals, civil servants who are made compulsorily redundant will get a maximum of 12 months’ pay.
For voluntary redundancy, there would be a 15-month cap. Mr Maude told MPs that the current deal is ‘completely indefensible in the current environment’.
But Labour, which tried to cap the payouts at two years’ salary, failed after the Public and Commercial Services Union took legal action and won a surprise victory at the High Court.
Last year it emerged that 15,000 civil servants had been made redundant over the previous three years, pocketing almost £1billion in payoffs.
More...
How public service value plummeted under Labour (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298222/How-public-service-value-plummeted-Labour.html)
The average payout was almost £60,000, although some civil servants are believed to have qualified for six-figure sums. At present, the huge redundancy bill means many are kept on the public payroll after their job has been abolished because it is simply too expensive to sack them.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/27/article-1298009-0A8128EA000005DC-201_468x286.jpg Efficiency drive: Francis Maude said the compensation scheme for civil servants is 'out of kilter' with the private sector and even with other parts of the public sector
More than 1,700 are pocketing an estimated £50million a year in such ‘ghost jobs’ while they wait to be deployed to another task.
Nick de Bois, a Tory MP who sits on the committee, accused union bosses of ‘operating in a bit of a vacuum’ by trying to defend generous redundancy payouts. In the private sector, the minimum is only one week’s pay for every full year’s service for those between the age of 22 and under 41.
It falls to 0.5 week’s pay for each full year of service under the age of 22, and rises to 1.5 week’s pay over the age of 41.
http://f.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/articles/ic_print.gif Print this article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298009/Civil-servants-job-expensive-make-redundant.html#)
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298009/Civil-servants-job-expensive-make-redundant.html#ixzz0uvqGJcqA
WTF is going on with this world ?
By Becky Barrow (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Becky+Barrow)
Last updated at 12:38 AM on 28th July 2010
Comments (140) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298009/Civil-servants-job-expensive-make-redundant.html#comments)
Add to My Stories (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298009/Civil-servants-job-expensive-make-redundant.html)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/27/article-1298009-02DCBBBA00000578-88_233x423.jpg Warning: Francis Maude claims many civil servants are 'in limbo'
Many civil servants do not have a real job to do, the Cabinet Office minister admitted yesterday.
Francis Maude said he has uncovered a large number who literally have nothing to do at work all day – but are not removed because of the huge cost of making them redundant.
Speaking to MPs yesterday, he said: ‘[There are] people for whom there is actually no job. People who are kind of treading water.’
The cost to the state is huge, with the average senior civil servant earning nearly £80,000, according to official figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Mr Maude told the Public Administration-Committee that many departments have something called a ‘redeployment pool’.
They are aimed at workers who have finished a project, and must be helped to find another job to do – but it is a task which can take months.
Mr Maude blamed the rise of the ‘non-job’ among Britain’s 525,000 civil servants on the crippling cost of making them redundant.
Civil servants have one of the most lucrative redundancy deals in the country, a system which Labour tried but failed to scrap.
The terms of their redundancy deal is extraordinarily generous, with some long-serving civil servants eligible to receive about six years’ pay if they joined before 1987.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/28/article-1298009-0A979E2C000005DC-970_233x323.jpg
For example, a 46-year- old earning £24,000 who had been a civil servant for 25 years could enjoy a cash payment of about 6.2 years’ salary, or around £150,000.
By comparison, a private sector worker who earns the same money and has done the job for the same length of time would receive just £8,360 under statutory redundancy rules.
Within weeks of coming to power, the Government revealed plans to axe these generous redundancy rules. Under its proposals, civil servants who are made compulsorily redundant will get a maximum of 12 months’ pay.
For voluntary redundancy, there would be a 15-month cap. Mr Maude told MPs that the current deal is ‘completely indefensible in the current environment’.
But Labour, which tried to cap the payouts at two years’ salary, failed after the Public and Commercial Services Union took legal action and won a surprise victory at the High Court.
Last year it emerged that 15,000 civil servants had been made redundant over the previous three years, pocketing almost £1billion in payoffs.
More...
How public service value plummeted under Labour (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298222/How-public-service-value-plummeted-Labour.html)
The average payout was almost £60,000, although some civil servants are believed to have qualified for six-figure sums. At present, the huge redundancy bill means many are kept on the public payroll after their job has been abolished because it is simply too expensive to sack them.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/27/article-1298009-0A8128EA000005DC-201_468x286.jpg Efficiency drive: Francis Maude said the compensation scheme for civil servants is 'out of kilter' with the private sector and even with other parts of the public sector
More than 1,700 are pocketing an estimated £50million a year in such ‘ghost jobs’ while they wait to be deployed to another task.
Nick de Bois, a Tory MP who sits on the committee, accused union bosses of ‘operating in a bit of a vacuum’ by trying to defend generous redundancy payouts. In the private sector, the minimum is only one week’s pay for every full year’s service for those between the age of 22 and under 41.
It falls to 0.5 week’s pay for each full year of service under the age of 22, and rises to 1.5 week’s pay over the age of 41.
http://f.dailymail.co.uk/i/furniture/articles/ic_print.gif Print this article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298009/Civil-servants-job-expensive-make-redundant.html#)
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1298009/Civil-servants-job-expensive-make-redundant.html#ixzz0uvqGJcqA
WTF is going on with this world ?