Survey of the civil and public services of EU Member States Jake Byrne Civil Service HR Directorate Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Context Request for update on previous survey during Irish Presidency Questions covered changes to the structure of the public service and HR policy Responses received from 27 EU member states, EU Commission, Croatia, Montenegro, Norway, and Switzerland

Previous surveys of the civil and public services of EU Member States 2004 – Irish Survey 2006 – Austrian Survey 2010 – Spanish Study 2013 – Irish Survey

Areas covered in the survey - Structure Structure of the Public Service Number of public servants Number of Ministries Structure within each Ministry Department / Ministry responsible for HR policy

Areas covered in the survey – HR Reforms General Terms and Conditions of Service Rates of Pay / Pension Pension Entitlements or Conditions of Qualification Holiday / Annual Leave Entitlements Sick Leave Entitlements

Areas covered in the survey – HR Reforms Maternity / Paternity Leave Family Friendly Policies Methods of Recruitment and Selection to the Civil Service Structure of the Senior Public Service Recruitment and Selection for the Senior Public Service

Methodology Good quality data contained in responses Returns analysed by comparison to the 2006 Austrian survey Key findings summarised in report Full returns included as appendices

Strengths of the survey Useful snapshot of the current situation across Member States Findings form a good base for future analysis Puts context on the current reform agenda

Challenges of the survey Difficult to compare wide variety of public service structures and policies Different definitions of concepts across Member States Large time span covered both growth and recession periods Some elements of the responses may have been lost in translation

Results – Key Findings Public Service numbers Pay Pension Rates Pension Entitlements Family Friendly Policies Maternity / Paternity Leave Holiday / Annual Leave Entitlements Sick Leave Entitlements

Findings - Decrease in Public Service Numbers

Findings – Increase in Public Service Numbers

Findings - Numbers Large time span covered both growth and recession periods Finland, at 35%, shows the biggest reduction. The returns for 2012 reflect the effects of reforms in the university sector The results for Ireland show a reduction of only 2%. However, the transfer of 1,770 public servants (Community Welfare Service and National Training Authority) to the Civil Service masks the overall reductions in the period Without these transfers the Civil Service figure would have been closer to 34,600 as against 36,239 representing a reduction of 6.5%.

Findings - Pay *Note, number of mentions is greater than 27 as some respondents made more than one change

Findings - Pay In Ireland, the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interests Acts 2009 reduced remuneration, at rates of between 5% and 20%. In France, the basic salary of civil servants has been frozen since The UK introduced a two-year pay freeze for public sector workers in 2010.

Findings – Pension Rates N=13

Findings – Pension Rates Austria reduced pensions by 4.2% Ireland reduced pensions over 12,000 by 4% In Germany, pensions will now be based on 71 % of the final pensionable salary instead of 75%

Findings – Pension Entitlements N=27

Findings – Pension Entitlements 15 Member States reported incremental increases in the statutory retirement age; retirement ages now range from 60 to 70 4 Member States reported changes in pension contribution rates Ireland introduced a new career average pension scheme for new entrants

Findings – Family Friendly Policies N=21

Findings – Family Friendly Policies France has introduced more flexible working measures, such as teleworking In Greece, civil servants may take unpaid leave for a period of five years In Malta, public employees now have the right to work reduced hours to care for a child up to 16 years

Findings – Maternity / Paternity Leave N=22

Findings – Maternity / Paternity Leave The main driver of change in this area is the effect of EU policy as expressed in EU Directive 2010/18/EU on Parental Leave In Austria, male public employees may now take up to four weeks unpaid paternity leave during the period of the mothers statutory maternity leave In Poland, since 2012 there are two options for maternity leave – 6 months at 100% of salary or 12 months at 80%

Findings – Holiday / Annual Leave Entitlements N=27

Findings – Holiday / Annual Leave Entitlements Ireland and Portugal reported a reduction in annual leave Germany and Belgium reported an increased in annual leave, based on age or service Italy no longer pays for untaken annual leave

Findings – Sick Leave Entitlements N=19

Findings – Sick Leave Entitlements In Estonia, sick leave is now paid from the 4 th day rather than the 2 nd day and the sick pay allowance has been reduced from 80% of salary to 70% In France, civil servants and military personnel are no longer paid for the first day of sick leave In Portugal there is no payment for the first 3 days of a temporary disability and only 90% of salary is paid for day 4 to day 30

Summary Survey covers both growth and recession periods Little or no change in how public administrations are structured Changes have aimed to reduce long term expenditure - Reduction or freeze in pay - Reduced pension burden on Governments Balanced with improvements in work / life balance - Improved family friendly policies - Increase in maternity and paternity leave

Thank You