Some 46 Fás instructors and six staff on temporary contracts are being let go without compensation, the trade union Siptu said.
The union claimed the cutbacks were “part of a plan by the state training agency to deliver savings of three per cent in its wage bill to meet the Government’s public sector targets”.
Branch organiser Brendan O’Brien said the staff concerned received the news at the same time they learnt through the media that the organisation’s former director general Rody Molloy was likely to receive a ‘golden handshake’ worth at least €300,000.
Mr O’Brien said the staff members affected earn between €27,000 and €51,000.
He said they were told they would be let go in December, but following representations from Siptu, were allowed to remain in their jobs until after Christmas.
Mr O’Brien said he had referred the matter to the Labour Relations Commission to see if any jobs can be saved “and at least obtain some compensation for the 52 workers concerned”.
The hearing is set for Monday, he said this evening.
“Fás management said we were wasting our time going to the LRC and the decision was final, but we are determined to save these jobs if we can and to highlight the double standards it reveals about how ordinary Fas employees are treated compared with senior management,” Mr O’Brien said in a statement.
“A number of those facing dismissal have actually accumulated enough service to be made permanent and one of them has worked seven years for Fás, but management seems intent on disregarding even the statutory rights of these workers.”
Mr O’Brien said it was “scandalous” that Fás was treating some of its most vulnerable employees in this way in order to save money “while senior managers found to have exercised little or no control over waste are handsomely rewarded”.
Most of the staff concerned are teaching apprenticeships. Some of those, Mr O'Brien told RTÉ tonight, would be let go before the classes they were teaching were due to end. He claimed Fás was breaching the terms of fixed-term contracts in some cases.
He called on Fás “to honour the terms of the contracts of employment entered into with our members”.
Asked for comment on the matter, Fás had not responded by its close of business this evening.