asked the Minister for Defence if his attention has been drawn to reports (details supplied) that compensation has been paid to civilian employees for moving; if he will give full details of this, if mobility is not part of these employees' conditions of service; if any other claims are pending; and if he considers the conceding of this claim fair in view of the position of members of the Defence Forces.
Ceisteanna — Questions Oral Answers - Compensation for Moving.
17.
I presume the Deputy is referring to the reports of a recommendation by the Labour Court. These refer to a claim by civilian employees for compensation in respect of working conditions in one of the Department's workshops during repair work there.
The claim did not relate to moving and no compensation has been paid to civilian employees in respect of moving. The rest of the question does not, therefore, arise.
The report which I supplied to the Minister is the report to which I referred, but it is because of bad working conditions that the Labour Court awarded this amount to 100 civilians in his Department. Would the Minister then accept that there is a situation here where the civilians within his Department are awarded this compensation because of bad conditions at work and that there is a case to be made for the examination of the conditions under which the permanent Defence Forces work?
It is true that the Labour Court made an award based on the conditions in Clancy Barracks which were not ideally suitable for the people working there. The question has been tackled and the erection of new workshops was commenced in late 1978 and these will be completed in 1981.
Would the Minister accept, as I stated on a number of occasions that he has in his Department civilians who were represented by a union and who were awarded compensation because of bad conditions at work and that he also has within his Department people who are not unionised and who have no representative body to speak for them but who are also working in bad conditions. These people, if members of a union, would be entitled to compensation at a similar level, or perhaps even greater.
If they are, at this point I am not aware where these people are working. This was one instance in relation to the engineering branch where the problem was tackled.
The only way these people can protest is with their feet, in leaving the Defence Forces.
We are speaking here about civilians.
I am talking about civilians working within the Minister's Department.
Ceist 18.