Departments across the civil service are to review the existence of privilege days

This stems from a section of the Civil Service Reform Plan, which at page 28 states:

Each Department will undertake a review of terms and conditions and identify those that are beyond what a good, modern employer would provide. They will ensure that the Civil Service will continue to be among the best employers in the country whilst tackling those terms and conditions that often leave it open to caricature.

Senior managers in the Cabinet Office and presumably Ministers, have designated privilege days as being open to caricature. We are not aware of anybody actually caricaturing privilege days (the usual suspects of the Daily Mail, Daily Express) but clearly that is of no importance.

The problem these managers will have are that the days are contractual and cannot just be taken off us; further even if they could be taken off us, would this makes any sense in terms of staff morale, motivation etc? Moreover the thief of these days would surely spark strike action. These considerations may lead to a two tier work force; at least one department we know of is considering not giving privilege days to new entrants. So members maybe involved in an another fight.