There is widespread amongst small business groups lately, as it has been recently revealed that a group of local authority workers are being paid extra on top of their salaries to collect waste bins in wet weather.
The news has been heavily criticised by a local business group who claim the so called ‘rain allowance’ is absolutely ‘surreal’ and is complete ‘madness’. It is understood the payments have came to light after the Labour Court recommended that caretakers at Dublin City Council’s Traveller Accommodation Section should not receive the allowance.
It is believed that a number of workers have been receipt of the payment for lifting bins in inclement weather for a long period of time and they still continue to receive the payment today.
The news has angered the Head of the Small and Medium Enterprise organisation Mark Fielding who said the payments are indicative of some of the crazy waste in the public sector. Mr Fielding said: “The rain allowance is just another example of the madness in the public sector when it comes to perks and allowances paid to employees. “The list of hundreds of these reads like a script for a Monty Python sketch, except that it would be binned because it’s too surreal.”
Mr Fielding added: “The Irish Public sector will never become a world-class service for as long as these anomalies remain.”