Trade union representatives of staff in non-commercial State agencies are expected to indicate today that they will not co-operate with further plans by the Government to relocate their agencies out of Dublin as part of the decentralisation programme.
At a meeting organised by the trade union Siptu the representatives are expected to welcome a recent Labour Court ruling that the State training and education agency Fás could not make promotions conditional on staff being prepared to relocate to its new headquarters in Birr.
It is expected that this recommendation will prevent other State agencies, where there is a significant shortfall of staff volunteering to move, from using promotions to encourage a greater take-up.
Siptu has said that of almost 1,600 members in 16 State agencies only 56 had indicated a willingness to move out of Dublin. Siptu said that none of its 178 members at Fáilte Ireland had agreed to move with the agency to Mallow and none of its 98 members in Bord Iascaigh Mhara had opted to move to Clonakilty, while only one of its 89 members at the National Roads Authority had agreed to go to Ballinasloe.
Siptu, which took the case to the Labour Court on behalf of its members in Fás, said that the Government should rethink its plans to include State agencies in the decentralisation programme.
Separately, the trade union Impact yesterday called on the Government to review its decentralisation programme in light of the ruling. In a letter to Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, Impact national secretary Louise O'Donnell said that a review of decentralisation "would allow a breathing space to learn from the process to date and to shape the programme going forward".
She said: "The recent Labour Court ruling in the Fás case applies equally to Impact's professional and technical civil servants as it does to its members in the State bodies. There are unique and in some instances insurmountable problems in relation to the current decentralisation programme for these staff.
"The Impact professional and technical staff in the Civil Service do not have access to inter-departmental competition nor to any form of promotion outside of their existing stream. In the majority of cases, if their current posts are decentralised, not only will they not have access to promotion, but there will not be any jobs in Dublin within their current profession."
Impact urged Mr Cowen to examine each area earmarked for transfers to establish if there was a good business case for the move and determine if there was a critical mass of applications from people with relevant skill-sets.
Ms O'Donnell said that where there was not a critical mass of appropriate applications "the areas should be dropped from the decentralisation programme".
Impact represents some 1,200 civil servants whose posts are earmarked for decentralisation.
Mr Cowen said last week that the plan would go ahead despite the ruling. He maintained that the programme was progressing well and that nearly 40 per cent of Civil Service posts due to be relocated had already been filled.
He said there were issues for the agencies in progressing decentralisation at the same pace as the Civil Service due to the organisations' size and nature. He had asked his department to engage with the unions to establish how progress could be made.
