Fás head office staff step up industrial action

Staff at the Fás head office in Dublin are refusing to answer phones or use faxes and e-mail today as part of their dispute with management over plans to decentralise them to Co Offaly.

Siptu has claimed that only a tiny fraction of the 400 staff at head office have agreed to move to Birr as part of the Government's decentralisation programme.

Siptu Fás branch organiser Greg Ennis told ireland.comthat today's action will be extended over the next few days and weeks to all locations where head office staff are stationed. These include the training centres at Loughlinstown, Baldoyle and Jervis Street in Dublin, as well as the Fás facility in Sligo.

All head office staff are also continuing their policy of non-co-operation with voluntary training activities, Mr Ennis added.

The union claims that although decentralisation is supposed to be voluntary, pressure to move is being imposed on staff by making promotion dependent on agreement to relocate.

However, Fás says that as it is scheduled to move its head office to Birr by 2009, anyone seeking promotion or wishing to join head office should be aware that they will be expected to work in Co Offaly.

Siptu members at Fás recently voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action over the dispute. Talks at the Labour Relations Commission broke down last month without resolution.

Birr is in the constituency of two ministers - Minister of State Tom Parlon, who is in charged with implementing the decentralisation programme, and Minister for Finance Brian Cowen.