SIPTU negotiation to end FÁS strikes

THE Government’s battered decentralisation initiative was dealt a fresh blow yesterday as SIPTU appeared to win a key victory over the compulsory relocation of State agency staff outside the capital.

Union bosses called on members to back an LRC-brokered deal which looks set to end a wave of industrial action at FÁS.

Neither side would comment publicly on the agreement, but it is understood to defuse the threat to promotion of workers who do not want to relocate with the agency to Co Offaly.

Plans to move 400 FÁS staff to Birr by 2009 prompted SIPTU to mount one-day and half-day strikes as well as refusing to communicate using telephones, emails and faxes.

The deal makes it clear decentralisation will be a voluntary process, which is likely to make it harder for FÁS to attract reluctant staff to Birr.

“Undeniably, a lot of individuals do not want to go to Birr. That’s something we have to work on,” a FÁS spokesman said.

The agreement came after Tánaiste Mary Harney acknowledged there was a “real issue” faced by staff at agencies such as FÁS and Enterprise Ireland, who did not want to move with their employer outside Dublin.

While Civil Service workers who did not want to relocate can be moved to different Government departments, staff of State agencies did not have the option to switch to a different agency.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern attempted to play down the increasing opposition to the decentralisation scheme as he insisted controversy over the plan was hyped up.

Mr Ahern was speaking after he was approached by an angry, shouting delegate at yesterday’s IMPACT conference in Killarney.

Just as Mr Ahern finished his note speech, Willie Cummins of the architectural branch approached the podium with an anti-decentralisation placard and accused Mr Ahern of ignoring the issue.

“There is an effort to hype this up to some huge crisis. That isn’t the case,” he said.

Mr Ahern added he was certain that any complications could be resolved through negotiations.

“All of those issues have to be worked out, as they have been done from the start, in detailed negotiations between the staff representatives and those representing Government. We are determined that we can do that,” he said.

SIPTU members at FÁS head office will meet on Monday to decide whether or not to accept the proposals put forward by the LRC.

Ms Harney said she believed the decentralisation target — moving 10,000 civil and public servants — could be met “with a little bit of imagination”.