NEARLY 300 staff at Forfas and Forbairt picketed the Dail yesterday to protest at legislation which proposes establishing the National Standards Authority, now part of Forfas, as a separate agency.
The turnout indicates growing industrial unrest in the NSAI, Ferfas, Forbairt, IDA Ireland and FAS, which are responsible for job creation, training and technical supports for industry.
The proposals affect about 100 NSAI staff.
More than half those on the picket lines appeared to be members of SIPTU, the agencies' main union.
One SIPTU spokeswoman said the proliferation of state agencies to tackle unemployment was a bureaucratic nightmare".
But it was MSF, representing NSAI technical staff, which called the protest.
It wants the authority to remain part of Forfas.
SIPTU members are in dispute with Forfas, Forbairt and IDA Ireland over pay.
SIPTU staff in the state training agency FAS, which also operates under the aegis of Forfas, are balloting on a pay offer.
The result should be known by the weekend, with union sources predicting rejection.
Until now, these agencies have been relatively trouble free, but pay anomalies and increasing use of contract staff have created discontent.
Mr Fergal O'Byrne, the MSF branch secretary at the NSAI, said yesterday it would cost an extra £1 million a year to run the authority as a distinct agency.
He contrasted the readiness of the Department of Enterprise and Employment to carry out the reorganisation with the difficulty in obtaining permanent employment.
Of 110 technical staff at the authority, he said, 57 were permanent.
Of 25 SIPTU members in the NSAI only 10 were permanent, a spokeswoman said. "An awful lot of people believe the agencies, as they are now, are not working," she said.
The Department and Forfas want to make the NSAI autonomous in order to meet a recommendation of the European Accreditation Council.
It says that bodies such as the NSAI, which set and measure technical standards, should operate separately from state agencies such as Forfas, Forbairt, FAS and IDA Ireland, which provide supports for industry.
In 1993 Forfas was set up as an umbrella body for such agencies. The state research and technical body Eolas was incorporated into this structure, along with the IDA.
The latter was split into Forbairt, to support indigenous industry, and IDA Ireland, which continues offering supports to foreign investors.