Decentralisation - Siptu action could derail troubled plan

THE overwhelming size of yesterday’s vote in favour of industrial action at FÁS, the State-run training agency, represents the most serious threat to date for the Government’s endangered plan to decentralise the civil service.

Since the policy was floated, little progress has been made towards the much-vaunted transfer of 10,000 civil and public servants from 60 departments and State agencies to new offices around the country.

If other civil servants follow the line taken by Siptu at FÁS, opposition to this politically-motivated initiative will snowball, with embarrassing repercussions for the Coalition in the next general election.

There is no disguising the crude political thinking behind the proposal to transfer the civil service from Dublin to other parts of Ireland. Having failed to reap the anticipated rewards from the local elections, when sceptical voters gave Fianna Fáil the biggest trouncing in its history, the Coalition is now fighting a desperate rearguard action in a bid to sell the policy before going to the country next spring.

From the outset, there has been resistance to the brainchild of ex-Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy, now safely an EU Commissioner in Brussels.

According to Siptu, the ‘voluntary’ nature of the scheme has been breached by the FÁS decision to predicate the chances of promotion within the organisation on the willingness of staff to move to new offices in Birr.

Significantly, the Labour Court ruled that FÁS was acting in breach of agreed industrial relations procedures by promoting only those staff prepared to move.

Betraying the same political caché as other re-location initiatives up and down the country, the Offally town is at the heartland of Junior PD Minister Tom Parlon’s political bailiwick.

In what is proving to be something of a poisoned chalice, the former IFA leader has been given political responsibility for pushing the campaign ahead. But, as the FÁS vote clearly shows, he is encountering bitter opposition to a policy which the unions say will uproot families and disrupt the lives of 60,000 people.

Siptu has thrown down the gauntlet to Mr Parlon. An overwhelming 87% of its 250 members at FÁS have voted to oppose the move to Birr, objecting to the policy ground-shift under which promotional prospects have become conditional. Reportedly, only six people out of 400 staff at the agency want to go to Birr.

In contrast, the highest level of acceptance (17.2%) was in Social and Family Affairs. However, almost nine out of ten staff at the Department of Education do not want to move to offices at Mullingar and Athlone.

According to a FÁS spokesman, at least one other State agency, the Health and Safety Authority, is pursuing a broadly a similar policy in relation to its planned move to Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.

According to FÁS, this approach is not based on an interpretation of Government policy but represents what the Coalition now wants to pursue.

Unless the issues are resolved, the decision to stitch promotional conditions into the deal has put a major question-mark over the likely success of decentralisation.

After seeking sanction from its national executive, the union is planning to embark on a series of short stoppages at FÁS, gradually ratcheting up its campaign of opposition to enforced decentralisation.

Arguably, the threat of industrial action could spell curtains for the whole scheme. Given that voluntary acceptance was supposed to be the cornerstone of the campaign, the apparent change in the ground rules has laid the Government open to a charge of blackmail.

Decentralisation could be a dead duck.