Impact threatens to withdraw from decentralisation

IMPACT trade union has warned it may pull the plug on the Government’s decentralisation plans.

It claims Minister of State Tom Parlon reneged on career and job security commitments given to Office of Public Works (OPW) staff in May.

A special meeting of the union’s decentralisation sub-committee on September 7 will discuss a possible withdrawal of co-operation from the Government’s programme.

Figures from Government departments and State agencies — collated by Fine Gael in mid-June — showed only 20% of 1,700 specialists whose jobs have been earmarked for decentralisation indicating a willingness to move.

As sole representative of specialist civil servants across many departments, Impact represents more than 1,200 civil servants and State agency staff earmarked for relocation.

All of them specialist staff, they include engineers, architects, marine geologists, petroleum specialists, valuers, accountants, health and safety inspectors, cartographers, airworthiness professionals, legal specialists, policy experts and heritage experts.

The union claimed Mr Parlon agreed at the May 30 meeting that specialist OPW staff who chose not to relocate to Trim, Co Meath, would continue to do their existing work or be given other suitable work within the OPW.

He also said there would be no “parallel recruitment” or duplicate recruitment of new staff to do the work of those who chose to stay in Dublin.

But in a follow-up letter, Mr Parlon made no reference to these commitments, according to Impact. Instead, the letter said posts outside the OPW would be provided for staff who chose not to move. After persistent attempts to clarify the position over the summer, IMPACT says it is now clear that Mr Parlon does not intend to meet the commitment he gave.

IMPACT national secretary Louise O’Donnell said yesterday: “This is the first test of the Government’s claim that decentralisation is voluntary and won’t disadvantage staff.

“Mr Parlon’s commitment was recognition that OPW specialists like architects and engineers can’t simply be moved to other departments where similar jobs don’t exist without fundamental harm to their careers. He has now reneged on that commitment,” she said.

Ms O’Donnell said the Government’s unwillingness to address specialist staff concerns was fuelling frustration among Impact members.

A spokesperson for OPW said last night the Department of Finance had met the union following the May meeting and was in the process of writing to the union on some of the issues raised.

As far as Mr Parlon was aware, the Department of Finance was still dealing with Impact.